


Pacific Rim Prompt Fills

by ProblemWithTrouble



Series: Prompts [20]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Kaiju, Alternate Universe - Professors, Canon Compliant, First Dates, First Kiss, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) Compliant, Sick Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:37:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 31,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21938902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProblemWithTrouble/pseuds/ProblemWithTrouble
Summary: Various prompt fills from tumblr
Relationships: Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb
Series: Prompts [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/182300
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	1. "I know you think you're being helpful" - sick fic

Hermann was sick. A cold was tearing through the Shatterdome, most people were wearing face masks but it wasn’t doing anyone much good. Hermann had worked through hsi first day of the cold with a cup of tea, some medicine, and a lot of wheezing but day two was worse. His usual pain levels had spiked with the addition of aching from the cold, he could barely breathe, and he’d run out of medicine the night before. 

He was laying in bed with the lights off just trying to focus on breathing when his door opened and Newt came in with a bag in one hand. “You feelin’ any better?”

Hermann sighed. “No,” he wheezed. 

“Well I brought stuff because I am the best labmate ever,” Newt said, closing the door behind him and flopping down on the bed. 

Hermann hissed in pain and tried not to tense because it would just make it worse. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Newt said, rustling the bag and pulling something out, a box of medicine. “Decongestant and a cough suppressant. Pop two of these.” Hermann wrestled two tablets out of the foil and took them with his tea that had gone cold an hour before. 

“Gatterade; for the electrolytes. A fresh box of tea; for the comfort. Heating pad; for the sore muscles,” Newt listed off. He jumped up off the bed to make a fresh pot of tea, clunking around at the counter that served as Hermann’s kitchenette; just a teapot, a mini fridge and a box full of snack foods. 

Hermann groaned. “Newton…”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll be quieter,” Newt said with a whisper. Soon the water was boiling and he brought Hemrann a tea that was spicy smelling and had a texture to it. Tea was not supposed to have texture. 

“What is this?”

“The box said ‘Cold Buster’, I thought it would help,” Newt said, shrugging one shoulder. He started rustling around in the bag again. “Did you want something to read? I got one of those mass market fantasy books you love. I don’t think it’s a romance novel but I wouldn’t swear to it. I also can’t promise it’s the first in the series because I couldn’t tell.”

“I feel as if my brain is going to burst out of my eye sockets, Newton. I couldn’t read if I wanted to. Though that book doesn’t sound very tempting to start with,” Hermann grumbled, then coughed for a long while. 

“You can’t trick me, Herm, I know you love that shit,” Newt said, but it sounded like he dropped something on the ground and into the bag. 

He sat quietly on the edge of the bed for barely a second before he jumped up and moved to the head of the bed and started to mess with the pillows. “Newton, I know you think you’re being helpful,” Hermann started but was cut off. 

“Oh,” Newt said quietly. He came back around and sat next to Hermann’s outstretched legs. “I know I’m not being helpful. I’m just…”

“You’re what?”

“Worried about you. I know we’re not really...friends anymore but you looked really bad yesterday,” Newt said. “And I could hear you coughing all night. The walls might be metal but it’s not thick metal.” He picked at his nails, frowning. 

“What do you mean we’re not friends? We’re friends.” 

“Hermann, we haven’t been friends since twenty-seventeen,” Newt laughed, smoothing the blanket next to Hermann’s leg. 

“I’m too tired to argue with you about this right now. You are my friend, Newton Geizsler, whether you like it or not,” Hermann said, yawning. 

“I like it. Friends it is,” Newt said, patting gently on Hermann’s knee. 

“Good. Now will you make me a cup of tea from my tea box,” Hermann asked. 

Newt jumped up and started the tea again. 

“Thank you,” Hermann said, his eyes drifting shut. A few minutes later Hermann had a warm mug of tea pressed into his hands and he couldn’t help his smile. 

Newt’s leg started to bounce until it was affecting the bed and Hermann had to put his hand out onto his knee to stop him. “Do you need anything else? I can go back into town,” Newt said. 

Hermann squeezed his knee. “It’s just a cold, Newton. I’ll be fine.” 

“I know. Since we’re friends now I can tell you the lab’s too quiet without you.” 

“I would think you would just turn your music as loud as you wanted,” Hermann said with a smile. 

“Nah. I’m so used to your damn chalk if there isn’t your damn tapping it doesn’t sound right,” Newt said with a laugh, patting Hermann’s hand that was still on his knee. 

“Thank you for trying, Newton,” Hermann said quietly. 

“Of course.” 

“Come sit next to me. You can read from that ridiculous book you brought me.”

Newt stretched down and picked up the book before scooting up against the headboard. He was pressed knee to shoulder with Hermann on the narrow bed and felt warm all over. He opened up the book and cleared his throat. He’d probably catch a cold from spending so much time with Hermann while he was sick, but Newt figured that then Hermann could take care of him. “Ash fell from the sky. Lord Tresting frowned…”


	2. Secretly married newmann

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon asked for "secretly married newmann perhaps ?" 
> 
> They were so secretly married that they didn’t even know it was a secret. They were just being married and no one else in the shatterdome knew. Until Tendo of course because our man Tendo will always be there to save the day.

It was nearing midnight when Tendo found that his secret smoking spot with the best wifi reception had been invaded by Newt sitting on the ground a nearly burnt out cigarette in hand as he scrolled through his phone frowning. 

“Why are you here?”

“Do you think you’re the only one who knows where the wifi routers are in this place?” Newt said without looking up from his phone. 

Tendo shrugged and sat down next to him, back to the wall and took a deep breath of smoke. He had another four hours of breach monitoring to do before his shift was over but if Hermann was to be believed it would all be for nought as another attack hadn’t been predicted for another month. 

“What are you doing?” Tendo said, looking over to see that Newt was shopping for books. 

“Shopping for my anniversary.”

That brought him up short; as far as Tendo knew Newt wasn’t dating anyone. “With who?”

Newt looked up from his phone to stare at Tendo like he had grown a second head. “Hermann.”

“Anniversary of what? The time you chucked a hunk of kaiju at him and hit Herc Hansen in the chest instead?” Tendo laughed. 

“First of all: I never claimed that I could throw with any accuracy,” Newt said, counting on his fingers. “Second: our wedding.”

Tendo coughed on the smoke he had been trying to inhale. “You two are married? You two are /together/?” 

“You didn’t know?” 

“You two hate each other.”

Newt waved him off. “Nah. Not really, we just talk loud and like poking at each other. It doesn't mean we hate each other. Does no one know we’re married?” 

“Not one person in this shatterdome knows you’re married. There are a few theories that you two hate-fuck but that’s about it,” Tendo said, he took another drag of his ciggarette. 

“Huh. Weird.” He picked up his phone again. “Anyway, I need to find a gift. Third year is leather, weirdo likes it when I keep to the traditions.”

“Leather bound book?”

“Probably. That or some new leather pants.”

“For you or him?”

“Pants for me to wear and Hermann to enjoy,” Newt said as he pushed himself back onto his feet. 

“Gross,” Tendo said, cringed. “Tell your /husband/ I said hello.”

“Will do,” Newt said with a little wave. Newt headed back to the room, still thinking about the fact that apparently no one knew that he and Hermann were married. Hermann was strict about the PDA but still they were /married/. He pushed the door to their room open and to see the man he loved look up from his tablet and smile at him. “Shopping for my anniversary gift?” 

Hermann scoffed. “No, I bought that weeks ago. It’s hidden in this very room.”

“You’re full of shit.”

Hermann gave him a blank look. 

And Newt couldn’t help but smile as he stripped off his shirt to change into his pajamas. “Did you know that no one knows we’re married?” 

Hermann paused for a second. “That’s not terribly surprising. Neither of us wear a ring and we aren’t overly affectionate in public.”

Newt shrugged. 

“Does it bother you?”

“No. Yeah. Maybe. I don’t know. No one knows I have a super hot husband and that sucks.” Newt climbed into bed and cuddled up to Hermann who wrapped his arm around his shoulder. 

“Well no one knows I have a very handsome husband but you don’t see me whining about it,” Hermann said with a kiss to Newt’s hair.

“Shut up and turn off the light so I can sleep,” Newt said with a light shove before rolling away back to his side of the bed. 

Hermann put aside his tablet and reached to turn off the lamp on his bedside table. “Goodnight, my love,” Hermann said with a kiss to his cheek as he rolled back over. 

Two weeks later, on their anniversary they sat in their room together, on opposite sides of the bed with two cupcakes between them while wearing their pajamas. It was their anniversary tradition that Newt promised every year they would break as soon as the world was saved and they could go to actual restaurants and get actual flowers and go to the spa or the aquarium for their special day. Hermann secretly hoped that after the world was saved they would still exchange gifts sitting on their bed laughing with their song playing on Newt’s phone. 

“You first,” Newt said, handing over the very obviously a book package. 

Hermann tore open the paper to find a leather bound copy of Introduction to the Analysis of the Infinite. “Oh, darling. Where did you get this? I didn’t know they made special copies of this.” 

“Bought a normal copy and bound it myself. Turns out they don’t make a lot of leather bound books for math nerds like you,” Newt said with a grin. 

Hermann leaned forward to kiss Newt. “Thank you, my love. It’s very nice. And I haven't read this in quite a while. Now you.”

Newt’s present was much smaller and definitely not a book. A small square box that fit in the palm of his hand. He tore it open, and opened the small wooden box under the wrapping paper and heard his own gasp. 

“Do you like it?”

Newt pulled out the simple gold band out of the ring box and slid it on his ring finger, nodding his head and unable to speak or he’d start crying. 

“You seemed upset that no one knew we were married, I thought this would help,” Hermann said with a smile, his cheeks burning hot. 

Newt crawled up the bed and give him a deep kiss, “I love you so damn much.”


	3. Soft Newt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon asked for "Would you please write something about Newt hating how soft and adorable he looks because he feels it makes people take him less seriously but he never had that problem with Hermann?"
> 
> Ah a character study of our precious baby biologist and the way a certain mathematician makes him feel just a little bit better.

It wasn’t surprising that Newt was as loud as he was. He’d been loud and “confrontational” before he had learned how to speak in full sentences. It had amused and annoyed his father and uncle in equal parts. As he’d gotten older and the constant encouragement by schools to push him a grade further was putting him in classes that were barely any challenge but where he was surrounded by people five years his elder he’d gotten even more prickly. Cracks about his height were frequent and he’d been subjected to more than a few pitting glances from people who weren’t brave enough to help him but felt uncomfortable with the constant harassment of a little kid. So he’d gotten sharp and embraced their irritation that quickly turned to hatred. 

They could make cracks about the fact that he hadn’t hit puberty by senior year of high school ( he was 13) but he would pour diethylene glycol over the hood of their car in the middle of the night so when they woke up the paint was stripped. 

He’d hoped that it would get better as he got older but that had turned out to be nothing more than a dream since his baby fat seemed determined to stick around as long as possible, he never hit the growth spurt his father had been promising, and his voice had never settled into the gruff grumble his uncle had. 

Still, he stopped pouring brake fluid over people’s cars for disrespecting him, and he had to find new ways of projecting himself into a version of himself that people actually respected. None of them had gone particularly well. 

When the kaiju came everything changed. People were desperate for answers and reasoning and because Newt was a scientist he could offer almost none. One data point doesn’t provide much and he couldn’t get within ten miles of Trespasser to do any deep investigation. His lack of answers and his peers blatent bullshitting drove him to sitting on Twitter and Reddit and Facebook and even fucking Tumblr arguing with people and trying to bring people back to the reality of the fact that they didn’t know anything. All that got him was a lot of frustration and a letter from Dr. Hermann Gottlieb on real paper that started with “I know you don’t know me or likely have any desire to, however I must tell you that you seem to be the only person in all the world speaking sense.” 

In the very next paragraph Hermann started to poke holes in Newt’s only public theory - that whatever it was it was coming again and they should prepare on all fronts in all oceans, not just the Pacific. After that it was on.

Letters were exchanged with barbs and private theories that would never see the light of day. Soon texts had joined in for when they wanted to call each other stupid faster than waiting for the mail to deliver the next letter. He didn’t bother to worry that maybe Hermann wouldn’t respect him when they saw each other because the letter after he’d sent a picture of himself Hermann had ripped apart his theory succinctly, though he’d also agreed that Newt had a point about his own theory that Newt had torn apart in his letter. Nothing had changed and Newt had realized as he stared at Hermann’s picture that it was because Hermann and he were the same age. He got the feeling they were the same in a lot of ways.

When they met and everything went to shit Newt knew that it wasn’t because he was young, and a little soft, and had a scratchy voice. It was because Hermann was a dick and Newt was a dick and neither of them knew how to stop for thirty seconds to remember that they were best friends. It was the only bright side he could find when he was crying his eyes out in his shatterdome quarters when he found out that he was being transferred to share a lab with Hermann for “better collaboration on Jaeger weaponry.” 

It had gone exactly as poorly as both Newt and Hermann had told Pentecost it would but they also churned out the new designs for the rockets in Striker and a new coating for all the jaegers to better withstand kaiju blue, among other things. Everytime one was implemented and the jaeger came home safe for the first time Pentecost would swing by the lab, halt the arguing for a minute, and tell them to keep up the good work. 

It was then that Hermann allowed a rare genuine smile. It only came out once Pentecost was out of the lab and he looked at Newt with a grin, like it was a secret that they could work miracles when they worked together. Newt always smiled back until his face hurt. 

Quiet smiles turned into quiet nights talking on the lab couch, which turned into less quiet nights in Hermann’s room. But at the end of it all, when the kaiju were defeated it was that quiet smile that Hermann gave him while the LOCCENT exploded in cheers that let Newt really feel like they had won.


	4. Anniversary of Pitfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon asked for "Hello! I just saw the httyd/pr comparison and it just gave me an idea for a prompt that I really hope that youwill like! Given how dangerous the public kaiju shelters are, there's cameras set up inside them. Hermann comes across the footage of Newt clearly panicking, getting pushed away from everyone, losing his glasses, then trembling while Otachi is all over him and if he doesn't spend the next three hours cuddling Newt he might just die."
> 
> Post Pitfall by a year Hermann sees the footage and then they snuggle in the bed watching Chopped on Netflix. Enjoy!

Hermann had no intention of watching any of the memorial footage. It was the one year anniversary of the closing of the breach and everyone was talking about it but the only thing that Hermann had planned to mark the occasion was attend the PPDC Memorial (as required by Miss Mori) and treat himself to a cup of tea and a good book while Newt watched a movie on his tablet while in bed. They had planned it and also given Mako a heads up that they were going to be coming down with awful colds right after the memorial and wouldn’t be able to come in the next day. She had coughed and said that it seemed to be going around. 

The memorial was hard to sit through. None of the people who should have been speaking said anything while the top brass droned on about their constant faith in the Jaeger program while Mako and Herc exchanged looks that were more than a little angry. 

That night Hermann and Newt went home to their apartment near the Shatterdome. Newt started to reheat the lasagna that he’d made days before knowing that neither would want to cook over the coming days. Hermann went to shower and change into his pajamas.

As he got out of the shower he checked his personal email out of habit and saw an email from a news outlet that he was subscribed to with the subject line “PPDC Scientist Was Chased By Otachi: New Footage.”

Hermann couldn’t help clicking on the link, just to make sure that neither he nor Newt were about to be horribly embarrassed while they were still trying to rebuild their lives without the kaiju. 

It was shaky and blurry and even if the video wasn’t of the love of his life running for his life it still would have made him nauseous. He sat on the toilet lid holding onto the phone for dear life as he tried to hold back tears at the panic that Newt had as he faced down Otachi. 

He jumped when Newt knocked on the door. “You okay in there? Dinner’s getting cold.”

Hermann locked his phone and set it aside clearing his throat before he spoke. “I’ll be out in just a second.” 

Newt hummed and Hermann listened to the steps fade away as he went back to the kitchen. Hermann opened his phone again and closed out the tab, deleting the email as well. He finished changing into his clothes and came out of the bathroom where Newt was eating curled up on the couch and a plate was waiting fo rHermann on the counter. 

On a normal night he would have scolded Newt that they had a perfectly good table and that he was going to stain the couch if he ate there. Instead Hermann grabbed his plate and sat down next to him, making sure that they were pressed together from knee to hip even if it made their arms knock together annoyingly. 

“Not that I’m not diggin’ you getting all cuddly but...what’s up my dude? Today harder than you thought it would be?”

Hermann took a deep breath as he considered his options of what to tell Newt. “In a way, yes. The resurfacing of events of last year has been...trying.”

Newt put his plate on the coffee table, straightened up a bit so he could wrap one arm around Hermann’s shoulder. “For sure. But just remember it’s okay not to be okay. I promise not to tell anyone you’re human,” Newt said with a grin and a kiss to Hermann’s cheek.

“What about you? Are you okay?” Hermann asked.

“Oh hell no. The sooner we’re out of January the better. Then I’ll be able to shift into Valentine’s Day mode and I have _plans_ for his Valentine’s Day,” Newt said with another grin. The man loved his superfluous holidays more than the real ones. And this year would only be their second as a couple so Hermann was sure he had plenty of plans up his sleeve.

Hermann put his plate to the side with Newt’s, ignoring the way Newt frowned at it and the mostly untouched food. “If you wanted to be not okay I’m here for you, my darling,” Hermann said, adjusting himself so that he was facing Newt.

“I know and I love that. But it’s heavy shit and it’s better left in therapists office,” Newt said blushing a little.

Hermann tried not to look dejected because he understood that, truly. He had things that weren’t secret from Newt but that he didn’t talk about because he didn’t want to lay them on him. 

“Hey don’t make that face,” Newt said.

“I’m not making a face.”

“Exactly. It’s your I’m-upset-and-hurt-but-I-think-these-emotions-are-dumb-so-I’m-not-going-to-share-them face.”

“They found coverage of you running from Otachi,” Hermann blurted out. Silence hung heavy in the air. “You always talk about how ‘cool’ it was to see it up close but I know you were terrified. I saw it.”

“Oh,” Newt said quietly.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn't have watched it.”

“Nah. It actually explains why dad was so insistent on the phone earlier about going to visit soon. He called while you were in the shower.” Newt looked far away as he spoke and Hermann had never felt so guilty. “Everyone else will have seen it by tomorrow too,” Newt said with tears welling in his eyes.

“Darling...”

“Can we go to bed early?” Newt asked. 

“Of course. Do you want to watch Chopped on my tablet?” Hermann asked. He personally wasn’t a fan of the show but Newt loved it and it always helped him calm at the end of a hard day. 

Newt nodded.

“Go brush your teeth, I’ll take care of the dishes.”

Newt nodded again and went to the bathroom. By the time Hermann had finished Newt was snuggled down into the bed under a pile of blankets, including Hermann’s gravity blanket. Hermann grabbed his tablet on the way over, his hand reaching for the overhead lights, Newt had turned on his side lamp so it wasn’t dark as Hermann crawled into bed. 

He positioned his back against the headboard, with his legs straight out, and a few pillows stacked to support him. 

Newt scooted over as Hermann propped up the tablet on his legs and turned on Chopped. 

“We should just get a TV for in here,” Newt grumbled, resting his head in Hermann’s lap. 

“You’ve read the studies on that and we both know neither of us need _more_ trouble sleeping.” 

“Doesn't matter if we just end up watching it on tablets instead,” Newt said as Ted Allen started his intro. 

“The special occasions are nothing against how often we would watch TV in bed if it was easier.”

“Fuck you and your logic.”

“Yes, dear.”

“Shush. It’s starting,” Newt said even though they had already missed the first chef’s introduction.

Hermann woke hours later, the tablet asleep, his back aching and Newt snoring still pressed against Hermann’s side. 

Hermann put aside the tablet and carefully slid down the bed without waking Newt and night stirred again until morning.


	5. Newmann has a fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon asked for "Would you be willing to write this prompt? Newt and Hermann get into a fight and it's not resolved but they find they can’t fall asleep without cuddling. Thank you!"
> 
> Here you go! Post PR, no uprising because fuck that. Just two people having a fight but loving each other too much to stay mad forever. Enjoy!

Hermann had been having trouble sleeping all night. He’d gotten into an argument with Newt that had slipped and spiraled out of control. It had started tense but then one of Hermann’s barbs had come out a little shaper than he’d intended and Newt had taken it at face value and Hermann didn’t try to correct himself and now they were sleeping in separate rooms. Hermann was in the bedroom and Newt on the couch becasue even when they were fighting Newt wasn’t going to allow him to fuck up his back sleeping on the couch. 

Around two hours into trying and failing to sleep Hermann had gone out into the living room to ask Newt to come back to bed but the man was already asleep on the couch so Hermann had taken himself back to bed, resigned himself to little if any rest, and decided to start their morning with him making breakfast for them both, an apology, and a promise to talk clear-headed and calmly that night after work towards a compromise. Newt always needed more time to cool off after a fight so it was best to just both go to work before trying to parse out the details of what exactly they were going to go about the work trip that Newt had agreed to for both of them without asking Hermann. 

It was around two thirty when Hermann came fully back to consciousness, the bedroom door having opened. He stayed still with his eyes barely cracked to watch Newt walk in with his pillow and the blanket from the back of the couch that he’d been sleeping under earlier and came to Hermann’s side of the bed and just laid down on the floor. 

“Newton, what are you doing?” Hermann whispered, leaning over the edge of the bed to look at his husband. 

Newt looked up at him and frowned. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“You were sleeping fine earlier,” Hermann said and tried to keep the bite out of his voice. It had hurt that when Hermann couldn’t sleep without Newt near that he’d had no trouble, but it wouldn't do any good to start the fight back up again in full force. 

“Faked it when you came out.” Newt shrugged. 

“Why?”

“Didn’t want you to know I couldn't sleep.”

“I can’t sleep without you either,” Hermann said. “Get off the floor you’re forty years old. Get in bed.”

Newt scrambled up, pillow and blanket still in his arms. “Are you sure?” 

“Yes,” Hermann said, pulling the blankets back on Newt’s side of the bed. 

Newt came around to his side and climbed in. “I know I shouldn't have agreed to the lecture without talking to you. But I still totally think we should go to it.”

Hermann just sighed. “We’ll work it out after dinner tomorrow.”

Newt nodded once and settled down into the bed, still facing Hermann. “So you’re not gonna like divorce me?” He looked like was joking but there was something in his voice that made Hermann sure that that was what Newt had assumed that Hermann was going to tell him when he came to talk to him while he was on the couch. 

“No, my love. It’ll take a bit more than this to make me stop loving you,” Hermann said. 

“People in love still get divorces if one of them is just too annoying to be around,” Newt whispered. 

Hermann felt his breath catch in his throat. “Are you asking for a divorce?” 

“No!” Newt shouted, reaching out and grabbing Hermann’s arms. Hermann smiled at him and Newt took his hands back slowly. 

“Then I think we can work out anything else given enough time and effort,” Hermann siad. “For now, get some sleep. Your reasoning skills are not their best when you’re exhausted.”

“I’m gonna let that jab go out of my love for you,” Newt grumbled, his hand finding Hermann’s. 

“Good. I am still furious with you.”

“Can I kiss you goodnight anyway?”

Hermann smiled at him. “I’ll never forgive you if you don’t.”


	6. Sick on Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon asked for "So Halloween is coming up soon! I'm so excited! I went to a store for some candy and ended up also picking up three different Halloween decorations lol. Is youi're taking Newt/Hermann Pacific Rim prompts still can you please do that one I saw? i’m sick on halloween but told you to go have fun at the party anyway but instead you surprised me with a blanket fort, tons of candy and all my favourite scary movies"
> 
> So no blanket fort but there are love confessions so hopefully that makes up for it!

When Newt woke up on the 31st of October with a massive headache and barely able to breath he popped the last of the cold medicine that he had and tried to power through. There was a Halloween party in Tendo’s quarters (which meant that there was a party in the hallway outside Tendo’s quarters and the booze was on Tendo’s desk inside the room itself) and Hermann had agreed to go with him as friends and Newt was determined to make his move by the end of the night. It was their night and a cold was not going to stop him. 

By three that afternoon the medicine had worn off and the cold seemed back with a vengeance. “You can’t go tonight,” Hermann said after Newt almost fell over. His hand was like ice pressed to Newt’s forehead which was sending violent shivers through his body. “You have a fever.”

“I’ll get some more Tylenol from someone and I’ll be fine,” Newt said, smiling up at him.

“No. Newton, you’re not fit to work. I’m taking you back to your quarters now, get up,” Hermann said, pulling at his arm and out of his seat. 

“I’m…”

“No. You’re going to sleep and if you argue with me anymore, I will take you to medical and they will force you into a forty-eight hour leave from work,” Hemrann snapped at him as he lead him out of the lab. 

“Fine,” Newt managed, secretly reveling in the care Hermann was showing him. He’d have to come up with another night to make his move. He wondered if he could convince Hermann to let him hang mistletoe in the lab even though they were both Jewish. 

Hermann stayed long enough to make sure that Newt took a drink of water and took off his boots before he left to get back to work. “Don’t have too much fun at the party without me,” Newt yelled as the door swung shut. It wasn’t even a full minute before Newt was asleep. 

***

The door of Newt’s room had never been quiet and it woke him when it opened. “Newton?”

“Herm?” Newt asked as he pushed himself up onto his elbows. 

“If you’re still sleeping I’ll leave,” Hermann said, just a silhouette in the light from the hallway, but something was definitely under his arm that wasn’t holding his cane. 

“You’re good. What’s up?” Newt said, leaning over to turn on the light and take a sip of the glass of water that Hermann had left him earlier. 

“I know how much you love Halloween so I thought I’d bring a film and some snacks so you can enjoy it even if you can’t go to the party,” Hermann said, giving a weak smile. 

“Hell yeah! Come sit,” Newt said, scooting to the side before grabbing his laptop and opening it. He’d had to search for hours online to find a model that still played DVDs when he had bought it but it was well worth it because every time he watched a movie with Hermann they had to sit shoulder to shoulder so that they could both see. 

Hermann gently shut the door and sat down on the bed next to him. He handed Newt a copy of a DVD of The Shining. “Good choice.”

“I have good taste,” Hermann snapped at him as he settled into the bed next to him. 

“Sure, Jan,” Newt said while thinking to himself _let's hope not too good_. As it started he investigated what snacks Hermann had brought. A bottle of Gatorade, blue flavor for Newt, a bottle of water for Hermann. Pre-popped popcorn, a box of Runts, some warm soup, and a new box of cold medicine. “You’re the best.” 

Hermann’s ducked his head to hide his smile, instead focusing on opening the soup and handing it to Newt. 

“I love you,” Newt blurted out. 

Hermann stared at him as the opening credits of the movie started, eyes wide and face reddening. “That’s the fever talking.”

Newt hit the spacebar a little harder than necessary to stop the movie. “It’s not. You’re the best and I love you.”

Hermann’s face did a whole emotional journey that Newt was much too sick to follow before he nodded once. “Ah. Love me as in a friend you appreciate greatly.”

“Hermann. Just say it if you’re not interested. But I love you. Like love love,” Newt said.

“You’re sick and you don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Yes, I do!” Newt yelled and he felt like a petulant child who didn’t want to take his medicine. 

Hermann stared at him for a long time, searching him for something that he must have found eventually because he took Newt’s hand, threading their fingers together. “I’m not ready to say love yet,” he said staring their hands pressed together even though Newt’s hands must have been clammy and gross. 

Newt squeezed his hand. “Can we be boyfriends anyway?”

Hermann still wouldn’t look at him again, but nodded. “That sounds lovely.”

Newt couldn’t stop smiling and it was making his headache worse. “You’re going to make me get better before we can make out, huh?”

Hermann finally did look at him. “Absolutely.”

“No fun.”

“Eat your soup and start to film.”


	7. Making Out on Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon asked for "would you be willing to write this halloween prompt going around? For Newmann. or, we’re in costume and i know exactly who you are but pretend i don’t so i have an excuse to make out with you just once"
> 
> Late by a day but every day is halloween if you’re not a coward. Please enjoy some angst with a happy ending about their first meeting.

_I can’t wait to see you_ Newt had written. He had added after his last PS on his last letter and damn him, Hermann couldn't wait to see him either, which was why he was in a bar in Queens, New York on Halloween listening to a punk band while wearing a lazy vampire costume. Naturally, it was Newt’s band that was performing with Newt singing while wearing too much eyeliner, body glitter, and fake blood. Hermann couldn't figure out if it was a costume or if that was just how Newt dressed when he performed. Either way it seemed charmingly whimsical from the other side of the bar.

Hermann had arrived shortly into the set so he wouldn’t be tempted to talk to Newt. They’d agreed to meet the next day at a conference and Hermann didn’t want Newt to know how much work he had gone to just to see him a twelve hours earlier. As hopeful as Hermann was for their future he was also realistic in the fact that he was smitten and that that did not necessitate that Newt was smitten as well. As the band finished their last song and Newt introduced the next band Hermann drained his glass. 

It took him too long to push his way through the crowd, though and by the time he was outside the next band had was up checking their levels and Newt had beaten him outside. “Hey,” Newt said, looking Hermann up and down and taking another drag of his cigarette. “Did you enjoy the set?” he asked with a smile that Hermann was sure would have melted his heart even if he wasn’t already three quarters of the way in love with him. 

Hermann hesitated, sure he had been caught. “Yes.”

“Cool.” Newt nodded once with a smile. “You should stay for the next band too. They’re great. And we’d be able to hang out for a while.”

“I don’t think so. It’s getting late and I have a very busy day tomorrow,” Hermann said. Newt hadn’t called him out yet but he was sure it was coming and braced himself for the mockery. 

“Bummer. And here I thought tonight might be the night that I finally got a groupie.”

“Are you always this forward?” Hermann asked, his cheeks burning. How dare Newton suggest such a thing? They were friends, or at the very least colleges; they were something that included a little respect.

“Are you always this cute?” Newt asked. “I saw you watching. You don’t have to be embarrassed.”

“I am not embarrassed! You seem to think this is charming in some way and you should know that it is not.”

“I think it is,” Newt said, putting out the cigarette under his boot and swaggered towards Hermann with a dramatic swing of his hips. “And I think you do too.”

And what could Hermann do with such a clear provocation than narrow his eyes, announce that he was about to kiss Newt and then do just that, one hand holding his cane and the other on Newt’s waist. 

Newt kissed back, a smug smirk making it just a little uncomfortable. He tasted of smoke but Hermann didn’t care. Couldn’t care; he was kissing the man he’d been fantasizing about for months. He hoped that if they just kept kissing it would fade. 

Somehow they ended up with Hermann backed up against the wall one hand in Newt’s ridiculous hair and Newt’s hands sneaking under his shirt. Then Newt rolled their hips together and Hermann had to break away to keep from moaning, biting his own lips. 

Newt was panting when he asked. “Do you want to go back to my hotel room? It’s close.” 

“Yes,” Hermann said, pulling him back in for another kiss. 

Newt laughed into the kiss “Wait, shit. What’s your name?”

Hermann felt his blood go cold. “What?”

“Your name. I like to know what name I should be shouting,” Newt said, with a small tug to pull Hermann closer. 

“Dietrich. I’m sorry, I have to go,” Hermann said, pushing Newt away. 

“We don’t have to talk or we can use fake names. Whatever due,.”

“No. I’m sorry. This was a mistake,” Hermann said and then rushed away. Hermann had thought all his dreams had come true and that for once he got to win, but no. Newton hadn’t even known who he was. 

***  
The next morning Hermann dressed in the outfit he had planned for his meeting with Newt like the night before hadn’t happened. New trousers, new sweater vest, his favorite black suit jacket, and a freshly pressed white button down. Hopefully Newton wouldn't recognize him, or at least assume that Dr. Hermann Gottlieb would never set foot in a bar having a halloween party.

He went to an early morning lecture and then set off for the coffee shop that he had agreed to meet Newt at. Newt was already there, scarfing down down a blueberry scone and looking like he was a little bit hungover from the way he winced when some plates crashed loudly. Hermann went and got his coffee first and then walked up to Newt. “Dr. Newton Geiszler? I’m Dr. Hermann Gottlieb.”

Newt’s head snapped up to look at him, a slightly confused smile on his face. “Hermann? Dude you don’t need to be so formal,” Newt said. “Sit, you’re early.” Then he tapped his phone saw 10:01 am staring back at him. “Or right on time.”

Hermann sat down across from him and couldn’t help but smile. “Hello. It’s nice to meet you.”

Newt nodded and took a drink of his coffee. “This might be a dumb thing to say but it is seriously throwing me. You look just like a dude I met in a bar last night. You weren’t in Queens at a party last night were you?” Newt laughed. 

Hermann felt himself go completely still. “Oh, really?” he asked, his voice almost cracking in spurise. His laugh sounded off even to him. “No, no.”

For a long second Newt just stared at him, then his eyes went wide and wet. “Holy fuck you were.”

“Newton…”

“Holy shit you have a brother named Dietrich. You made out with me and then gave me your brother’s name!” 

“Let me explain,” Hermann tried to interject.

“You called it a mistake. You hunted me down and then called me a mistake!” 

“That’s not what I said,” Hemrann said, snapping at him out of embarrassment. “We shouldn’t have been acting like that in a public place. It was indecent.”

“Bullshit. I invited you to make it private and you fucking bailed. Was it some kind of fucked up propriety test to make sure I’m good enough to work with you?”

What Hermann should have said was the truth. That Hermann had gone because he had wanted to see Newt. That he had called it off because he was embarrassed that Newt didn’t recognize him and that he was too far gone to not want more from something that was clearly just a hookup to Newt. Instead he said, “Well if it had been you certainly would have failed.”

So instead of Newt calming down and admitting to his own hurt feelings and that he was in love with Hermann too Newt stood up and left with a barely ground out “fuck you.” 

***

Eight years later, once they had saved the world, Newt turned to Hermann. “I know why you were in Queens.”

“Don’t hold the things you saw in the drift against me. I did what I had to do to save the world,” Hermann said with a sigh. 

“I’m not. God, you always jump to the worst conclusions. I’m trying to tell you that if I had known it was you it wouldn’t have changed anything. I loved you too.”

“Loved?”

“Well you're not exactly the person advertised in your letters.”

“Neither are you,” Hermann remarked. 

“Yeah, well, fair. Real Hermann and Real Newt are still a pretty good pair though, right? Cuz I’m kind of in love with Real Hermann.” Newt didn’t even seem shy about his admission. He must have seen Hermann’s still very current feelings in the drift. 

“I would say we managed to save the world. Compared to that, how difficult can a functional relationship be?”

Newt laughed and for the first time in years he leaned towards Hermann for a kiss and it was like coming home again.


	8. "Will you love me when I'm a spooky ghost"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so in honor of halloween coming up i have a really cute newmann prompt i hope you like! prompt is will you still love me when I am a spooky ghost?
> 
> Just our boys bickering over whether being a ghost or a vampire is better with a healthy dose of tooth-rotting fluff and sweetness.

“If you could choose between being a ghost and being a vampire which would you choose?” Newt asked without preamble. They were having a nice quiet night in about halfway through October and Hermann couldn't even muster some shock or surprise at the sudden question breaking the silence between them as they watched a movie. 

He didn’t even pause in his knitting. “I would rather be neither.”

“Come on, play along.”

“Fine, a vampire,” Hermann said.”

“What?”

“Is that the wrong answer, Newton?”

“Duh. Who would want to be a vampire when they could be a ghost?”

“Who would want to be a ghost when they could be a vampire?”

“Anyone with a brain!” Newt said, sitting up to look at Hermann better. “You’d have to kill people and eat their blood. Ew.” Newt set aside the half eaten popcorn to keep from spilling it in the upcoming battle.

“Blood banks exist, Newton. And as biologist would I be getting any less nutrition from say cattle blood versus human blood?” Hermann asked. Now that they weren’t fighting off the end of the world their arguments had been much more fun. There was also a lot more kissing at the end now.

“Oh don’t go all biologist on me! We have no idea what kind of nutrients a vampire needs!” Newton said, pressing his toes into Hermann’s thighs. 

“And we have no idea how much freedom a ghost would have!” 

“I’d be able to walk through walls. Sounds pretty free to me!”

“Reliving your death over and over?”

“That’s a residual haunting and you know I’m talking about an intelligent haunting.”

“You’d still be bound to something and I would be free to roam the world as I pleased.”

“Only at night.”

“There are fewer people out at night. You’re not making your case very well.”

“Come on, Hermann, you know being a spooky ghost would be more fun. You love scaring the shit out of people!”

“I do not! Besides, people would walk through you and constantly be trying to exercise you. Vampires have their own homes.”

“Vampires have to have jobs to pay for those homes.”

Hermann paused for a moment. Working until the end of time didn't sound fantastic, adjusting to the times and having to hide his true identity while still trying to continue his own research might be tricky as well. “You’d never be able to publish your research again; if you’d even be able to continue it in spectral form,” Hermann countered. “We both know how much you love saying you’re right.”

That made Newt pause. “I could tell the people in my house and I’d be a ghost who makes people biology geniuses.”

“You can’t defend their dissertation for them, dear.”

“Oh don’t say dear in that tone, you condescending prick,” Newt said pelting Hermann with a half popped kernel that had fallen into the folds of the blanket.

Hermann squawked. “You brat,” Hermann said, grabbing at Newt’s feet that were so ticklish it was a hazard to even consider tickling them, but that was a risk he was just going to have to take. 

Newt squiremed away, falling off the couch in the process and then scuttled to a standing position again. “The betrayal,” Newt said, but he was still laughing.

“I’m a sneaky vampire, Newton. A creature of the night. It was your fault for trusting me at all.”

“Don’t I know it,” Newt said, still grinning. “More mulled wine?”

Hemrann nodded, and passed Newt his cup. “Please.” 

A few minutes later Newt came back out of the kitchen and set Hermann’s mug down on the table next to him, before draping himself over his back and kissing his cheek. “WIll you still love me when I’m a spooky ghost?” 

“As long as you still love me when I am a wretched vampire,” Hermann said, turning his head to give Newt a proper kiss. 

“We’ll have to retire to a castle, so that we can really get the right aesthetic,” Newt said, giving Hermann one last kiss to the top of his head before going around the couch to situate himself to continue watching the movie. 

“Of course, dear.” 

For the next two hours Hermann’s phone went off every ten or so minutes with a link to a castle for sale in Germany, each with a note from Newt about the pros and cons.


	9. "I love you and ain't that the worst"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said "I might have this song stuck in my head and one line in particular is screaming out at me about how it'd be a great Newmann prompt! I hope you're interested! "I love you ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?""
> 
> Poor smitten Newton pining after Hermann and making an accidental confession because honestly what other kind do these boys have?

Newt had been having a rough few weeks. For once work was going well. Some billionaire had pulled their head out of their ass and decided to give the PPCD an infusion of cash that had been sorely needed for jaeger repairs but Pentecost had decided to throw a few bucks at K-Science and Newt had been able to replenish the supplies he had been carefully rationing for months. So it wasn’t work that was terrible, it was his dismal dating life. 

It had started out fine, a few okay dates that never turned into anything special. But around first date number seven Newt realized exactly why he found everyone he went out with lackluster. He was in love with Hermann. 

The Hermann in his letters had been easy to fall in love with but after they had met Newt had sworn that he’d never be able to love real life Hermann. Three years of sharing a lab and Newt had proven himself wrong. 

Every additional date he went just made him think about Hermann more so he stopped going on dates and relegated himself to focusing on his work. Which backfired just a little because the longer he spent in the lab the more time he spent with Hermann. They spent more nights together working until they couldn't think straight and drank tea on the lab couch, and over all acted like two people who actually liked each other. Newt was falling deeper in love with every passing day. 

One night at their nine o'clock break on the couch Hermann said something Newt had hoped would never come up. “I’ve noticed you haven't been going out as often. Did something happen?”

Newt forced himself to laugh. “Oh no. There’s only so many times you can strike out before you have to give up.”

“Oh well I don’t think you should give up so easily. I’m sure there’s someone out there even for you.” Hermann gave him a smile and took another sip of tea. 

“Yeah well they sure as shit aren’t here,” Newt said. It came out a little more snappy than he had intended and he immediately felt bad. It wasn’t Hermann’s fault that he’d fallen in love with him. 

“Well maybe not this room in particular but you’re the one who believes in making one’s own luck. You can’t give up. What was it you wrote to me about fortune?”

“Fortune favors the brave,” Newt mumbled. He had written that to Hermann and he said it often but this was different. There was a fine line between being brave and being stupid and Newt knew how to walk it carefully. 

“Exactly. Don’t give up on being brave now,” Hermann said squeezing Newton’s knee. “Enough of that, though. Back to work.”

Hermann stood up from the couch and went back to his side of the room. Newt gave himself another minute to swallow back his tears. Hermann was so uninterested in him he was encouraging him to date and leave him alone to work at night again and that stung. When he got up to go back to work, he sniffled a little but it was enough to get Hermann’s attention who had yet to get back on his ladder.

“Newton, you’re crying. Why?”

Newt was tired and he could have said that. He probably should have, it was what he wanted to say, but instead “I’m in love with you,” is what came out.

“What?” Hermann said even if it came out more of a whisper. 

“I’m in love with you and isn’t that just the worst thing you’ve ever heard?” Newt laughed even as his crying got worse. His chest was tight and his heart was in his throat.

“No,” Hermann said firmly setting his jaw.

Now it was Newt’s turn to say “what.”

“It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever heard.”

Newt snorted a laugh. “Yeah. I know. End of the world: get some perspective Geiszler.”

“Shut up,” Hermann said coming to his side and sitting back on the couch. “I can’t imagine why you would think I am not overwhelmingly pleased to hear you say that.”

“Because -”

“I’m not done talking, Newton. You are acting like I don’t feel the same when I have been poorly concealing my own feelings for years.”

“Pretty well concealed if you ask me.” 

“Tendo, Miss Mori, and the elder Ranger Hansen would all disagree with you. As well as that fellow Jeramiah that you went out with a few weeks ago. He seemed quite keen on letting me know that he’d figured it out.”

“But…wait...Are you my boyfriend now?”

Hermann smiled at him. “If you’ll have me. Yes.” 

“Holy shit. I should have breakdowns in the lab more often.”

“I’m not sure that’s the right lesson to take away from this.”

“Whatever, Herm.” Newt said, quickly bending in and kissed Hermann’s cheek. “You’re my boyfriend now.”


	10. "Not you it's your dad"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon asked for " For newt and Hermann inspired by that last brilliant thing you wrote: It's not you, it's me. It's both of us. Actually, it's your dad. It feels good to admit that"
> 
> Ah the biggest kink of them all MARRIAGE! Please enjoy Hermann finding the ring Newt was going to propose with and then reminding Newt that Lars is still alive while Newt makes their guest list.

Hermann woke slowly as he did most days, Newt had to set multiple alarms and still shake his shoulder until he woke most days. This morning there wasn’t an alarm because it was Saturday and Newt was still fast asleep because he had stayed up past two in the morning watching horror movies like he was still twenty years old. It was October and Newt insisted it was a requirement but that hadn’t stopped Hermann from going to bed hours before him. They still had things to do that day afterall. 

He got out of bed and pulled on his robe before heading to the bathroom. As soon as his feet hit the tiles it sent a shiver up his spine and he made a mental note to get some socks before going into the kitchen where there would be more tiles. Once he was done he went back out and with a smile realized that it was the first day that was truly cold enough to warrant wearing his winter socks. 

They were fuzzy socks with rubber stoppers on the bottom to keep him from slipping and he loved them, but they got very warm very fast and he could only wear them once the chill had set in. 

He stood at the dresser, rooting around in the back of it to try and find his socks until his hand bumped up against a piece of cardboard. He pulled the drawer out as far as it would go and pulled it out. It was only a four inch cube but it was addressed to Newt at his office. 

A part of Hermann wanted to put it back, pretend he had never seen it. Newton was obviously hiding it from him and he trusted Newt so there was no reason to open his personal belongings. The other part of him was already opening the box. If Newt was really worried he shouldn’t have hidden it with Hermann’s winter socks when fall was starting. 

Inside was a smaller box that was black and velvet that Hermann opened and almost dropped. There was a golden ring inside, smooth and simple. He did drop his cane which hit the floor with a clatter, causing Newt to snap awake and sit up. 

“Hermann!” he shouted before he was really aware of what was going on. 

Hermann didn’t respond, in shock from what he was holding. An engagement ring, there was no mistaking it. A flood of something too strong to be called joy swept over him. He felt like he was in a dream, so happy it felt like it would never end. Newton wanted to marry him. 

“Hey, are you okay? What are you doing?”

Hermann finally turned around, still unable to speak, but tears welling in his eyes. 

“Oh shit, you found it. Well, surprise. I had like a whole thing planned but uh you want to get married?” Newt asked, laughing nervously and running his fingers through his already messy hair. 

Hermann set down the box on the dresser then all but threw himself at Newt and back onto the bed, kissing him senseless. “Of course.”

Newt’s grin broke into a giddy laugh as he kissed back. “Holy shit. Are you sure? I had a whole thing with stargazing and a candlelight dinner.”

Hermann just kissed him again, unable to stop smiling. “I don’t need all of that, you silly man. I just want you.”

* * *

“What are you doing?” Hermann asked, coming into their living room with a bowl of popcorn for their movie night.

“Working on the guest list,” Newt said, staring down at his tablet and frowning with his stylus in hand. 

“For what?” Hermann asked, sitting down and settling before Newt positioned himself against Hermann’s side. 

“Our wedding.”

“Wedding?”

“Yeah. Anyone in particular you want to make sure comes one hundred percent?” Newt asked. He grabbed a handful of popcorn and stuffed it into his mouth. 

“I didn’t know we were having a wedding.” Hermann pressed play on the movie and didn’t look at Newt.

“Of course we are. Did you forget already?” Newt asked, picking up Hermann’s left hand and kissing the gold band on his ring finger.

“I thought we’d go to the courthouse and call it done,” Hermann explained, without looking away from the tv. He seemed tense under Newt’s hand. 

“I like weddings, though,” Newt said. “It doesn't have to be huge or expensive. It’s why I was working on the guest list, I’ve got a big family so I have to start making cuts now,” Newt said with a smile. 

“That’s fine, but you do know that if we have a wedding I will have to invite my family,” Hermann said, finally looking down at him. 

“I like your family.”

Hermann frowned at him. “My father is still alive and a part of my family.”

“Oh. Right. Well I think we have to break up,” Newt said with a shrug, sitting up from Herann’s side and shaking his head. 

“What?” Hermann asked. He knew that Newt was joking but it sent a panic through him anyway. When he’d found the ring that morning he’d been filled with a kind of happiness that overwhelmed him. The mere idea that they could be over sent his heart racing. 

“It’s not you, it’s me. It’s both of us. Actually it’s your dad, it feels good to admit that,” Newt said, delivering his little speech with the flair of a shakespearean soliloquy. 

“Newton,” Hermann said, scowling at him. 

“It can’t be helped, I can’t have that nightmare at my wedding,” Newt said throwing his hand up to his forehead like he was about to fall onto a fainting couch. 

Hermann grabbed Newt’s hand and pulled him back against him. “You’re stuck with me. You already agreed this morning.”

Newt giggled into his side. “I guess you’re right.”

They both pretended to watch the movie that was now well into the first act that neither of them could quite follow since they’d missed so much. “I still want a wedding,” Newt said, sounding a bit like he was apologizing. 

“We can have one but we have to invite my family,” Hermann said, resting his head against Newt’s and pulling him a bit closer. 

Newt sighed dramatically. “Okay, but can I use an air horn every time he’s a dick?” 

“No. You may not.”

Newt sighed again. “Fine. Small price to pay to show you off as my _husband_.”

Hermann felt himself blush at the idea of being Newt’s husband and couldn’t stop the grin. “Pass me the list so I can see.”

* * *

A year later Hermann stood at the front of fifty of their closest friends and family holding Newt’s hands and trying not to cry as Newt said his vows, which of course rhyme so that he could remember them easier. Hermann choked up every third word of his own vows but Newt and everyone else laughed as he did. Luckily they were short because he knew he would never keep his composure. 

It all went off without a hitch and even Lars behaved himself on the happiest day of Newt and Hermann’s lives.


	11. Newt brings Hermann's life warmth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said "I had the best idea for a Newmann prompt and I hope you like it too and are willing to write it one day when the inspiration strikes you! Hermann had no idea how cold his life had been until Newt came along."
> 
> Awwww Hermann!! And in case no one has noticed cuddling on the couch and realizing how in love you are is my favorite trope.

Contrary to popular belief, Hermann did not come from a cold family. Sure his father was cold and distant but years of therapy had helped Hermann remove the stain his father had put on an otherwise happy childhood. His mother had been an awful cook but a grade A baker who always had cookies and homemade bread on the counter. Him and his siblings had been as close as any other and they had spent any free hours they had playing together.

But college had been a different story. Once he had entered the maths program Hermann had felt people pulling away from any friendship he tried to forge. The only person who hadn’t shunned him had been thousands of miles away and hidden behind paper letters. 

They’d met in person and things had followed the pattern and Hermann had been alone again. Karla had said it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, Hermann had told her to shut up. 

Hermann had tried not to dwell on it. He didn’t need anyone else. His life was plenty full with feeding the stray cat that came to his window, and his work, and trying to save the world. He convinced himself that he didn’t miss the small rush he got whenever he opened his mailbox and a fat envelope sat inside. Or the swell of pride and joy whenever Newton complimented him. He didn’t need it, he didn’t need Newton. 

Then they’d been forced together and against all odds they’d made it work and they’d saved the world. They had mind melded and saved the world. 

Now they were laying on the couch in the lab, half drunk and holding each other tight. 

“We did it,” Newt whispered against Hermann’s throat. 

“I know. We were there,” Hermann whispered back. A part of him wondered how he had ever lived without the quiet buzzing of Newton’s mind in the back of his own. It felt natural to be so connected to him. He had been able to anticipate what Newt was going to say for years, but this was a whole new level of connection. 

“It doesn’t feel real. It’s like a dream,” Newt said. 

“That’s probably the concussion,” Hermann said. 

Newt laughed and Hermann felt it through his whole body and in his own mind. Being around Newt had always been like standing outside on a day that rode the line between too hot and just right. Some moments it had been bliss, others had been grating but Hermann had never been alone. There had never been the icy anxiety in the pit of his stomach from not knowing where to sit in the mess; his place was with Newton. There had never been the shiver of fear of the unknown because Newt would be with him no matter what, because it was them against the kaiju. 

Hermann had known the warmth of being accepted for exactly who and what he was when he had been a child baking cookies with his mother and playing with his siblings. He mourned the loss of it when it was gone but now he realized he’d been feeling that same warmth for years without even knowing it. 

Newt giggled against his chest again. “Your brain feels weird.”

“I’m happy, Newton. This is what it feels like when I’m happy.” 

“Weird. It’s like one of those hand pocket heater things but in the middle of my brain. It’s making me sleepy.”

“Again, that is probably the concussion. Get some rest. I’ll wake you in an hour to ask you who your president is,” Hermann said, adjusting Newt so that he was laying right on Hermann’s chest. 

“Do you even know who the American president is right now?” 

Hermann laughed and kissed the top of Newt’s head. “I’ll look up some mothman trivia while you nap.”

Newt kissed Hermann’s collarbone. “I’ll want more kisses when I wake up.”

“You can have as many as you like if you answer the trivia correctly.”


	12. "I won't be satisfied until I have 10 more years"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon: "I hope that it is okay to ask this. I had a really rough day and tomorrow will probably have some really bad moments too. But you don't need to hear that. I was just thinking about something I think would make me feel better but I wouldn't even know how to begin to do it myself. Would you please write something with Newt and Hermann with "I won't be satisfied until I have ten years with you. Maybe not even then." Thank you in advance!"
> 
> Of course it’s okay. I hope your next few days are kinder. Until then have some Hermann showering Newt in affection.

Newt had been free from Precursor control for a year. They had celebrated it and everything. Well, Hermann had taken him out to dinner and made no mention of it at all but Newt had known they’d both been counting down the days. He figured there was a part of each of them that felt that a year was some sort of genuine milestone, like it would be harder for Them to come back after 366 days than it would be on 364th day. It was silly but it still felt nice, like fresh air after being on a ten hour flight. 

They were laying in bed holding hands because it was too hot to touch anywhere else and trying to sleep when Newt’s mind started to spin. What if now that it had been a full year, Hermann thought Newt was well enough to be on his own and left? What if Hermann had only been with him because it had been Hermann that had been able to break the hold? What if he was under _orders_?

“Love, what’s wrong?” Hermann asked without moving. 

“Nothing. Why?” Newt tried to keep his voice level and normal. If Hermann had only been in it out of obligation Newt didn’t want to show that he knew, then Hermann would have an excuse to cut it short because it had lost its effectiveness and Newt wanted every second with Hermann that he could get.

“You’re hyperventilating.” Hermann adjusted himself so that he was facing Newt, squinting in the darkness to try and make out Newt’s form. 

“No, I’m not.” 

“You will be if you keep down this path. Now what’s wrong?” Hermann kissed Newt’s knuckles and squeezed his hand a little tighter. 

“Are you on a timetable?”

Whatever Hemrann had been expecting, it wasn’t that. “I suppose. I would like to get to sleep before too long, I don’t want to be tired at work tomorrow.”

“No, not sleeping. I know how cranky you get when you lose sleep. I mean, relationship wise. Did they tell you you had to stay for a year?”

“Who on Earth would tell me to date you?” 

“The brass? To help keep the Precursors away because you were the one who...you know.” 

Hermann took a long second to process that before letting go of Newt’s hand and then taking his face in his hands. “They stole you from me for a _decade_, Newton. Our...foolishness before that was ours and it was us, but they took you from me. I will not be satisfied until I have a decade with you. If I’m truly honest I may never be satisfied. I love you, Newton, and I have loved you for so long I’ve forgotten what it was like to not love you.”

Hermann pressed a firm kiss to Newt’s forehead as they both began to cry. But Hermann kept going. “If this is some projection, if you want to end it because that’s why you were here so be it. But do not _ever_ think that I won’t love you. That I won’t want you. And never assume that anyone told me to love you. I’ve had people try to talk me out of it plenty of times before, but no one has ever so much as implied that I should or even would need to pretend to love you.”

“It’s not projection, I’m just being stupid,” Newt said in a rush, his tongue tripping over itself in an attempt to stop Hermann before he talked himself into his own spiral. 

Hermann smiled at him and released his hold on his face to take his hands again. “I’m not walking away. If you want we can reevaluate the question in nine years. Until then you’re stuck with me. And even if you want to end our relationship we’ll still be friends and drift partners.”

Newt could barely speak through the tears. It wasn’t often that Hermann was romantic but when he did it he crushed it. “I love you so damn much. I’ve never been happier to be stuck with someone.” Newt leaned forward and kissed Hermann’s lips. After a long silence Newt spoke again. “I can’t believe I thought Jake could get you to pretend to be in love with me.” 

Hermann laughed. “Jake is a child who I taught algebra. Our printer and it’s ever shifting moods has more influence over me than he does.”

“If you were nicer to the printer you wouldn’t have the trouble you do,” Newt said with a smile. 

“It’s a machine!” Hermann yelled.

“Shh. It’s late people are trying to sleep,” Newt said with a grin. 

Hermann scowled at him. “You’re impossible.” 

Newt kissed him again. “You love me.”

“I do. Now let me sleep.”

“Fine, but one more thing.”

“Yes, my love.”

Newt smiled at him softly and felt more tears spring to his eyes. “Ten years for sure isn’t enough. I’m gonna need at least fifty.”

“That can be arranged.”


	13. "I'm mad you don't want to die with me"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon: "Hello! I hope that this is something that you would be open to writing! Newt and Hermann and "I’m mad you don’t want to die with me." Thank you!"
> 
> Newt is a mess and Hermann has some issues with The Notebook.

Newt loved romance. Both the traditional capital R kind and the lowercase heartwarming kind. And he, like all reasonable people on the face of planet Earth, loved The Notebook. The heartache the longing the catharsis. It was a perfect romantic movie and yeah it had its problems with deep seated misogyny but what romance movie didn’t? Sure it had some issues with misogyny and it may have been the whitest movie of all time, but he loved love and Noah just loved Allie so much!

Hermann, like the stuffy professor he was, had never seen it. Newt had found that out in a letter from their first year after Newt had confessed to watching it alone on Valentine’s day (Hermann had watched The Princess Bride). As soon as Newt knew that he wanted to rectify that. 

Given how their first meeting went Newt didn’t think he’d ever be able to cuddle on the couch on Valentine’s day and watch The Notebook with Hermann like he’d planned. But life has a funny way of working and they’d been forced together in a cramped lab and fallen in love between shared naps on the couch and taking turns making the tea. Then they’d drifted and the war had ended and they were able to spend their first Valentine’s Day as a couple on their couch, eating take out, and watching The Notebook like Newt had always dreamed. 

When it ended Newt was crying because he always cried at the ending no matter how many times he saw it. Hermann was frowning. 

“I want that to be us one day,” Newt said, looking up from where his head was resting on Hermann’s shoulder. 

“I don’t.” Hermann looked down at his virtually empty wine glass like he was considering if he could get the last few drops out. 

Newt sat up; a little hurt by what Hermann had said. Did Hermann not see them as a long term relationship? Was Newt just there to help pass the time until someone better came along? “Why not?”

Hermann looked more confused than Newt felt. “You needn’t get upset. I just don’t fancy the idea of us ending up like that.”

“Ending up like what? Two people in love?” Newt could feel his voice getting louder and he knew he was being silly. But what the hell was Hermann getting at here?”

“Dearest, what are you getting so worked up about?”

Newt threw the blanket off of them and stood. “I’m mad that you don’t want to die with me.”

Hermann was faster than Newt ever gave him credit for and grabbed his wrist to stop Newt from running away. He was the one who made them talk about their feelings, which was for the best, but some days Newt wished he’d let him make a dramatic exit. “The dying isn’t the problem, Newton. I would rather be dead than see the day where you look at me as if I were a stranger. Even when you hated me you knew me.” Hermann was looking up at him with watery eyes, trying desperately to make Newt understand what he was saying and for once Newt did. 

Newt deflated, a part of him was swooning at what Hermann had said, and another wanted to take back the whole conversation. “Oh, babe.”

“Dementia isn’t romantic, Newton.” 

Newt sank down onto the couch next to him as Hermann’s eyes became unfocused.

“It’s devastating. It takes the person you knew away from you and it doesn’t have the common decency of death to make it permanent. It strings you along with hope that some day they’ll look at you and remember, but they won’t. Some days they don’t even know what they’ve forgotten and those have to be the good days because the days when they remember just enough are so much worse. They’re so scared because they have been stolen away from themselves; betrayed by their own minds. They know they have a child named Lars and they don’t know where Lars is or what they look like but the man in front of them can’t be Lars because he’s fifty and Lars is a boy of only ten. And who are those children with him who keep calling you Oma? And why can’t you remember them and why are they crying? Do you have grandchildren? The you you know would never forget your grandchildren.” Hermann looked to Newt and squeezed his hand. “It’s a wretched disease and there is nothing cute about a man grasping desperately at the remnants of his wife’s mind.”

Newt threw his arms around Hermann’s neck and pulled him tightly into a hug. “Okay. I forgive you for not wanting to die with me.” For a while Newt just held him as he felt small tears wet the shoulder of his t-shirt. “Bright side: I don’t have the genetic marker for it. Used to run all sorts of tests on myself when I was getting my genetics degree.”

“That sounds like a waste of resources.”

“It was valid research, Dr. Gottlieb,” Newt said, pulling out of the hug and giving Hermann a smile. 

“I’m sure, Dr. Geiszler,” Hermann said with a small laugh before getting serious again. “You should know, in case we go any further, that it does run in my family. That I might…”

“Hey, I’m here. Every step of the way. Even the shitty ones,” Newt said with a smile, wiping a tear from Hermann’s chin. “And not to step on our totally valid moment but what do you think happens if someone with dementia drifts. Would they be able to transfer the information lost or would it feel like an invasion, or would someone with dementia even be drift compatible with someone without? Or would–” 

Hermann kissed his forehead the way he knew made Newt’s heart go all melty to to finally shut up.

“I’ll email Caitlin in the morning.” 

Hermann kissed his forehead again. “Good. Now put in The Princess Bride.”


	14. "Don't call me buddy"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: What do you think of this for a Newt and Hermann prompt? “Stop calling me ‘buddy’ when we’re on a date.”
> 
> Newt can’t stop calling Hermann buddy while they’re on their first date

Newt was out of his mind nervous. It had been three days since the closing of the breach and his drift with Hermann. It had helpfully cleared up some things about their relationship, mostly that they had been fighting out of misplaced sexual tension and that they were both very much in love with each other. Well, Newt was in love, the jury was still out on Hermann. 

Newt had changed his outfit twice before deciding on a button up shirt, his least stained jeans, and a tie that he saved for special occasions; his first date with Hermann definitely qualified as a special occasion. When he knocked on Hermann’s door to pick him up it was exactly to the count of three before the door opened and then Hermann was standing in front of him with his suit jacket gone, in a sweater vest and his nice button up shirt, the one he saved for conferences that had actual french cuffs. His cufflinks were the ones that Newt had carved for him when they had been penpals and Newt still had a little time for hobbies. They had one G burned onto each one that Newt had pretended stood for Geiszler and Gottlieb. 

“Lookin’ good, buddy,” Newt blurted out.

Hermann looked as taken aback as Newt was embarrassed. “Uh, thank you. Shall we?” 

Newt nodded and stepped back so that Hermann could leave his room. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

Hermann smiled at him, tense then stepped out of the room and locked the door behind him. “Where are we going?”

“One of the empty HR offices. Everywhere is pretty much destroyed or closed in the city right now so abandoned offices of the shatterdome it is,” Newt said with a smile as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“That sounds fitting for the two of us,” Hermann said, looking at him and smiling again, making Newt’s heart thud hard in his chest. 

“Sure does, buddy.”

Hermann quirked his head to the side but didn’t say anything in response. 

When they got to the office Newt turned on the lights to reveal the table he had set up earlier. There was a crockpot full of broth that had been warming since he’d left and a bottle of wine on the table with two glasses and two large bowls. Once Hermann was sat —Newt even remembered to pull out the chair like a gentleman— he poured the instant ramen noodles into the broth to start cooking. “It’s not much but I did manage to find some half decent wine that didn’t get chugged in the celebration,” Newt said as he opened the bottle and poured them both a glass. 

“Is this the wine I hid in my cupboard that I couldn't find during the closing of the breach?” 

Newt laughed. “Maybe. I stole it about a year ago to mess with you but you never noticed.”

“Scoundrel,” Hermann laughed, taking a drink. It was fitting that Newt had stolen it from him since Hermann had stolen it from the Gottlieb family cellar about the time that he had been disowned for sticking with the jaeger program. 

A timer went off on Newt’s phone and he started to scoop out the ramen. He had managed to find some vegetables and even some fresh eggs to make the ramen better than his days in college. “Here you go buddy,” he said as he scooped out the ramen. 

Hermann’s face froze in his smile for a moment too long and Newt could feel the embarrassment burning the back of his neck. He was ruining this, he’d tried so hard to get it right and he was ruining it with his stupid mouth. 

“How many cats did you have?” 

Hermann stopped with his spoon halfway to his mouth. 

“Cats. I saw cats in the drift, but you had never mentioned them before, even in your letters.”

Hermann blushed a little. “Technically I never had any cats. My parents didn't want pets ruining the floors or furniture so we weren’t allowed.”

“Technically?”

“There were a number of stray cats that I used to feed. They probably had homes knowing cats, but none of them had collars and I liked to feed them. And they let me pet them.” Hermann smiled at him through his lashes. 

“And no one ever found out?”

“Oh Sabine, our housekeeper did. The cat hair on all my clothes was a dead giveaway to anyone who was paying attention. Luckily, she kept my secret.”

“Sneaky bastard right from the start,” Newt said, knocking his ankle into Hermann’s lightly under the table. When he let his leg rest up against Hermann’s he saw him bite his lip and then go back to his ramen. 

“I used to sneak leftovers out of the fridge to feed them. I checked out books from the library to make sure I only fed them food they could have. No milk, plenty of chicken.”

“Cats can’t have milk?”

“No! You’re a biologist, Newton!”

“I’m not a vet!”

“Ridiculous.” Hermann shook his head. 

Newt just smiled back at him. 

Hermann’s blush got deeper. “This is delicious, Newton.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Newt said. 

Hermann dropped his spoon into the bowl. “Newton, please. We are on a date. Can you manage not to call me buddy?” 

Newt felt himself shrink. “Sorry.”

Hermann sighed. “You don’t need to be nervous.”

“Who said I’m nervous?” Newt couldn't look him in the eye. Ge felt naked and not in the fun sexy way, but in a way that made him want to hide, the way that Hermann made him feel sometimes when he looked at him but didn’t say anything.

Hermann sighed again, tapping his foot lightly against Newt’s. “Did you have any pets?”

“A bearded dragon. And a tarantula.” 

Hermann tried to move his head back into Newt’s line of sight but Newt looked back at his soup. “What were their names?”

Newt chanced a look up. Hermann was frowning softly, like he was worried. “Ripley and Dutch.”

“Alien and Predator. I remember you telling me they were your favorite movies when you were a child.”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

* * *

Newt knocked his head against the table, groaning. “I ruined it.”

“Probably,” Tendo said. 

“What’s ruined?” Raleigh asked as he sat down with his food tray next to Tendo.

“Geiszler here’s been in love with Gottlieb for like a billion years and they went on their first date last night and Geiszler kept calling him “buddy”,” Tendo explained, pointing his fork at Newt for emphasis. 

“Ouch. That’s a rough one to recover from,” Raleigh said. 

Newt looked up and glared at both of them. “Not helpful.”

“Wasn’t trying to be,” Tendo said with a smile. He turned to Raleigh. “Let’s go. I want to show you specs for fresh jaeger designs your better half has been coming up with.” 

“I just got my food.”

“You can bring your oatmeal to the LOCCENT, let’s go,” Tendo said, standing up and starting to walk away. Raleigh caught sight of something behind Newt and nodded. 

“Right, coming.”

Not two seconds later Hermann rounded the corner of the table and sat down across from Newt. “Good morning, Newton.”

Newt sat up straight again. “Morning, Herms. How’d you sleep?”

“Fine. I’ve been thinking,” Hermann started. Newt prepared himself for the worst, this was the part where Hermann let him down easy, said something like that they liked the idea of each other but it would never work out in reality. “If you’re amenable I’d like to organize our second date.”

“Second?”

“Yes. Generally after a first date if the two people want to continue to see each other, they go on a second date.” 

“You still want to see me? Even though I kept calling you buddy and then kinda...shut down?”

Hermann smiled. “Yes, if you also want to. We were both nervous, Newton. This has been a long time coming and anticipation and expectations can make fools of us all,” Hermann said, watching Newt carefully. 

Newt smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I want to. Just tell me when and where.” 

“Tomorrow night at seven at my room. Wear comfortable clothes.” 

Newt’s smile grew so wide it hurt. “I’ll be there.” 

“Good. Now finish eating your oatmeal. If it gets cold it will congeal and then you won’t eat it.”

“Sure thing, buddy.”


	15. "I need you to smile right now"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anon asked for: Hey! Would you be willing to write Newmann for "Just smile. I really need you to smile right now.”
> 
> SO CUTE! Please enjoy Newt comforting Hermann when he gets sad due to the crushing sadness and despair from the war.

It had been a hard few days. A hard few years really. It had been hard because they were in the middle of a war. A war they couldn’t win. Hermann didn’t often let the hopelessness overtake him, but as jaegers fell and funding was starting to flow towards a wall that would never work, the hope was harder to maintain.

He tried to work through the temptation to just lay in bed and mourn for the life he would never be allowed to live. He built up walls around the memories of when he’d still been eager for his own future, to shield himself from the sharp stab of loss. But it was still a battle that he would lose at least a few times a year; usually when it was late in the lab, he was left alone, and things were slipping out of control. Apparently tonight was that night to fall apart. 

Newt had been gone for hours, drinking with a few J-tech friends. Hermann joned them more often than not but he’d been bad company for days and hadn’t wanted to bring them all down with his sour mood. It shouldn’t have been surprising that around ten o’clock when he was starting to consider sleeping that he felt the tell tale closing of his throat and the burning in his eyes that meant it was time to fall apart. 

He made himself a cup of tea, boiling the water through blurry eyes and then went to the couch, setting the mug on the table, before taking a deep breath and letting out the first sob. Once it had started he couldn’t stop and was crying into his hands and trying to remember to breathe. He didn’t know how long he’d been crying when he heard Newt enter the lab. “Herm! Yo, what the fuck?” 

Hermann looked up to see Newt doing a half-jog over to the couch to sit next to him. “What’s up, dude? You okay?” 

“Why should I be? We’re at the end of the world, and we can do nothing to stop it,” Hermann said, wiping the tears with his shirt sleeve. 

Newt paused for a moment. Even he couldn't argue that the chances of survival were getting worse by the minute and they hadn’t started that great to begin with. “There’s lots we can do.”

“Prolonging the inevitable.” Hermann sniffled. 

Newt put his hand on Hermann’s knee and squeezed gently. “Maybe, but it’ll be worth it. Who knows if all we need to crack this thing and save the world is more time. And if anyone can do this; it’s us. Don’t give up yet.” 

“I’m not giving up, I’m just…” Hermann closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m tired, Newton.”

“What can I do?”

Hermann shrugged. “There’s nothing to be done. I just couldn’t…”

“Stop yourself from feeling the crushing weight of our inevitable doom?”

Hermann laughed even if it was more like a cough. “Yes.”

“Yeah. Life’s a real shit fest right now, but we’re gonna make it. And if we don’t well...” Newt shrugged, “your last words can be “I told you so” and I know that’d give you a lot of joy.”

“Not for long,” Hermann shot back. 

“Yeah, but at least joy’ll be your last feeling and that counts for something. Not a lot of people got that even before the war,” Newt said, rubbing his thumb on Hermann’s knee. It brought Hermann more comfort than he’d like to admit. 

“I suppose you’re right,” Hermann conceded. 

“Ouch that must have hurt to say.” 

“Be quiet.” Hermann reached out for his tea and took a long drink. 

“How about a trade?”

“For your silence? I’d give my left kidney,” Hermann said, his voice was still thick from the crying and his eyes burned, not to mention the bone deep exhaustion that had settled over him. 

“I’m good on kidneys. Just smile. I really need you to smile right now,” Newt said, giving his own weak grin. 

Hermann forced a smile on his face even if it felt painful and Newt broke into a real grin from ear to ear so bright it made Hermann’s smile a little more genuine. “You’re not going to make me repeat some aspirational nonsense now are you?” 

“Nah. Come on, let’s go to bed. You get existential when you get tired,” Newt said, standing up and offering Hermann his hand. 

“I just made tea,” Hermann said, taking another drink.

Newt rolled his eyes took the mug out of his hands. “You can drink it on the way to bed.” 

Hermann took Newt’s hand and leveraged it to stand up then took back his mug. They walked back in silence, Newt holding his mug as he unlocked his door. “Oh, and Hermann.”

Hermann turned around in the doorway. “Yes?”

Newt broke into another huge grin that Hermann found himself smiling back so hard it hurt. “Go to bed, Newton. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Bright and early.”


	16. "I wish we had more time"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: Would you please write a prompt for newmann for "I wish we had more time." Thanks!
> 
> Y’all are breaking my heart. These two break my heart. So this is Newt and Hermann the day Hermann finds out that the Jaeger Program is closing down.

Hermann had been watching Newton for nearly half an hour. He was openly staring at Newton’s back as he worked, and he couldn't bring himself to care what Newton would think if he turned around. There wasn’t enough time to care. Not anymore. 

“You’re creeping me out, man,” Newton said without turning around. “I can feel you watching me.”

Hermann just hummed; neither confirming or denying. 

Newton looked over his shoulder to check on Hermann and finally abandoned his microscope and Petri dishes. “What’s goin’ on?” Newton asked as he came closer, crossing the line and leaning against Hermann’s desk in no time. 

“Nothing. I wanted to remember you is all,” Hermann said, not even feeling embarrassed for his blatant emotional words. He didn’t feel much of anything right then. 

“You going somewhere?”

Hermann finally looked away from Newton frowning. “I don’t know. I wish I knew, perhaps it wouldn’t be so frightening if I did.”

Newton glanced around the room as if referencing an invisible audience. “What?”

“We’re dead, Newton. Or as good as,” Hermann said, eyes going unfocused as he thought about all that was lost; the people that were already gone and the happiness that had been leached from the world the moment Trespasser had entered their ocean. “We’ve lost. We never stood a chance.”

Newton let out another, more dramatic sigh. “Alright you, break time. Let’s go for a walk before you get more melodramatic.” Newton pulled him up by one arm and handed him his cane.

“I’m not being melodramatic, Newton. We’ve lost, you know it as well as I have.” 

“Well, everyone loves an underdog.” Newton pulled on his coat and tossed Hermann his. 

Hermann pulled on his coat without even thinking about it. “The underdog rarely lives in real life.”

Newton led them out of the lab and started towards the elevator so they could go outside and get some fresh air. “Against other humans playing baseball, sure. But let me tell you as a biologist: humans as a species are scrappy. We’ll make it.”

“Newton, please be realistic.”

“No, I refuse. I won’t be, because if I believed in the odds I wouldn’t be here in the first place. I would have bought an old nuclear bunker deep underground like Cloverfield Lane when this whole thing started.” The elevator opened onto the landing pad and they went to the edge where they could walk without being in the way. “I would have tried my best to survive off of canned chili and hoped that I could live out my days without being crushed to death. You would have too.”

Hermann stopped and looked over at the ocean in front of them. He had never liked the ocean, too easily caught in the waves when he had played in the sea as a child, it had always frightened him. Karla had told him that was good because that was how the ocean wanted it. It was a powerful thing and if you disrespected or disregarded it you would drown you before you knew what was happening. Now it seemed harmless, just the place where the kaiju came from, not a power in and of itself. 

“You aren’t here because the odds are good, you’re here because you know it’s right. And you love a good fight,” Newton said quietly, trying to bring Hermann back from his thoughts. He was leaning against the railing next to Hermann and looking more worried than he would admit. He’d always been so easy for Hermann to read it made Hermann love him even more. 

“I’m going to tell you something but you need to keep it a secret until it’s announced. I shouldn’t even know,” Hermann said, finally looking Newton in the eye again. 

“Sure, what?”

“My father called. The council has decided to shut down the Jaeger program. They’re moving all funding to the wall. They’re telling Pentecost tonight.” Hermann tried not to cry when he said it. His father had called to gloat but Hermann had heard it as a death sentence for humanity. 

“Oh fuck,” Newton said quietly. “How long do we have?” 

Hermann shook his head. “I don’t know. Pentecost is a good man and smart. He won’t give up without a fight.”

Newton was quiet for a while. “That guy’s got a contingency for his continigency’s contingency. He will have seen this coming. He’ll have a plan.” 

Hermann nodded quietly. “I suppose he will.”

Newton shook his head. “Fuck. And we just finished Danger.”

“Yes. Father said it was the frivolous spending on Danger that was the final nail in our coffin.” Hermann kept watching Newton; he hadn’t been lying he did want to remember everything about him. He wanted to remember him so that even if they were separated, that at the end Hermann would be able to close his eyes and remember him as if he were next to him. So Hermann didn’t have to die as he had lived, alone. 

“Well, I’m going to put a nail in his fucking head.”

Hermann couldn’t help but let out his surprised laugh and then continued to laugh, Newton joining him after a few seconds until tears were running down their faces and they were leaning against each other as well as the railing. 

It lasted longer than it should have, but every time Hermann caught Newton’s eye he’d dissolve into more giggles. Finally, they both calmed, still huddled together at the edge of the platform, being ignored by everyone working around them. “I wish we had more time,” Hermann whispered to him. Even with all the sound around them of the wind, the waves, and the machines near them, the moment felt too delicate to talk too loud. Newton was close enough that he could hear him. 

“We’ll make more time,” Newton said, taking Hermann’s hand, a promise. 

Hermann tried to smile. “I wish we hadn’t wasted so much time.”

“Finally, something I can agree with,” Newton said, squeezing Hermann’s hand. Hermann leaned forward, brushing his lips against Newton’s until Newton pressed forward and turned it into a proper kiss. It was their first but there was something bittersweet to it that made Hermann think it was also their last. He knew it wouldn't be, they wouldn't be wasting the time they had left.


	17. "I'm still hoping it's you and me in the end"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: "Would you please write "I’m still hoping it’s me and you in the end" for Newt and Hermann from Pacific Rim?"
> 
> Were you trying to break my heart? Ugh. Anyway, after Newt is broken away from Precursor control Hermann is sent to assess him.

It was freezing in the cell. It was so cold it was keeping him from sleeping as he sat on the thin bed with his back to the wall. He was bone-tired exhausted and feeling more empty than he had during his worst depressive episodes. It had never been quiet in his mind but his last decade had been extra loud and now it was silent. He should have been relieved and a part of him was. He’d been desperate to be alone in his mind since he had realized he was no longer was, but he hadn’t been prepared for the loneliness. 

There was an unlocking noise at the other end of the cell as his door opened. Newt didn’t move, barely able to keep his eyes open until he saw the figure that walked in. Hermann.

“Hello, Newton,” Hermann said, eight feet away from Newt, practically plastered to the wall. 

Newt sat up a little more, pulling his blanket over his lap to hide his disheveled state. Shower day was tomorrow. “Baby Pentecost said you were alive, but…” Newt trailed off, eyes wide as he took in Hermann. His eyes caught on his neck. It had been months since Newt had attacked him and any bruises would have faded but Newt could have sworn he saw his fingerprints still dark on Hermann’s neck. 

“Understandable. The last time you saw me the Precursors nearly succeeded in killing me,” Hermann said. 

Newt ran his fingers through his hair to try and style it into something that made him look less wild. “Yeah. Fuckers.”

Hermann was quiet for a long while, looking to the chair that was screwed into the floor near the desk that was bolted to the wall. The problem was that if Hermann wanted to sit he’d have to come closer to Newt. “Are they truly gone?” Hermann asked.

Newt shrugged. “Haven’t heard from them in days.”

Hermann could hear the hanging of the sentence. “But?”

Newt smiled so he wouldn’t cry in front of Hermann. “The last time I underestimated Them I ended up brainwashed for nearly a decade and almost ended the world. They send you to see if you could tell if I was telling the truth?”

Hermann nodded, taking a few steps closer, but not close enough to get to the chair or be within reach of Newt. “They are under the impression that since one of the Precursors’ last acts was to try to murder me if presented with the opportunity, they may show their hand in an attempt to finish the job.”

For the first time in years, Newt felt filled with an emotion that was his own. Furious, righteous, hot anger. “They what?”

“Newton.”

“They just threw you into the lion’s mouth to see if I could manage to kill you this time?” Newt looked up to one of the many security cameras in his room “Hermann is not a fucking pawn that you can throw away you fucking idiots. He’s the only reason any of you are fucking alive. He’s saved the world. TWICE!” 

“Newton,” Hermann snapped, now sitting in the chair but turned sideways to still face Newt. “There’s no reason to be this angry. It was my idea.”

“Yeah, well, I always knew you were an idiot. What were you thinking?”

“People are standing ready in case anything happens. I’m perfectly safe.”

“You don’t know that. I don’t even know that,” Newt said, voice cracking and tears filling his eyes. 

Hermann reached out to pat Newt’s knee under the blanket. “Don’t doubt me, Newton. I understand you better than you imagine.”

Newt snorted, thinking of all the times Newt saw himself hurting Hermann because the precursors were in control and how Hermann didn’t even question it. Hermann had always held Newt in higher regard than he deserved and they both knew it. “Do I get to take two showers a week now that I’ve passed?” 

Hermann turned a disgusted and quietly furious look to the rest of the room. “I’m sure you will be afforded a few more luxuries. They may even consider a third shower a week if they smelt you as you are now.”

“Come back tomorrow night. Tomorrow is shower and laundry day. I might even get new sheets, I don’t think they’ve changed these since I moved into this cell.” Newt picked at the sheet and shrugged. 

“I shall. We could share dinner.”

“You hated the way I ate when I was allowed utensils, and all I get is finger food these days,” Newt said, making jazz hands. 

Hermann frowned, imagining Newt’s messy eating without even a spoon. “I will have to manage.” There was silence between them for a long time, just the two of them watching each other, neither brave enough to say what it was they wanted. 

“Herm, I…” A loud banging on the cell door made them both jump.

“That will be Jake. I’ll return tomorrow for dinner. Goodnight, Newton.” Hermann stood, giving Newt one more sad smile. 

“Wait,” Newt said grabbing his pillow and pulling a folded piece of paper out from the pillowcase. 

When Hermann turned around Newt held it out to him. “I wrote to you. Like the old days but,” there was another bang on the door, “not.”

“Thank you, Newton. I will see you tomorrow,” Hermann said, tucking the paper into his jacket pocket as he left, knocking on the door to have it unlocked and opened for him.

* * *

Out in the hall, Jake was waiting with a guard just as Hermann had suspected. “Well?”

“All signs point to them being gone. My official recommendation would be to release him,” Hermann said. 

Jake sighed. “Gottlieb, you know we can’t do that yet. Soon.”

Hermann shook his head, not bothering to hide his displeasure. “Then at least allow the man some eating utensils and more than one shower a week. Maybe even some clothes.”

Jake nodded. “We will. Tomorrow he can have his cereal with a spoon and he does smell so more showers.”

Nate came around the corner frowning and with a hand out to Hermann. “What’s in the letter?” 

Jake made a face at Nate and Hermann bristled. “I assure you if there is anything pertinent to the PPDC I will let you know.”

“Dr. Gottlieb,” Nate started, sounding ready to lecture Hermann on proper procedure. 

“Mate,” Jake cut in. “We trust Gottlieb, remember? He’ll tell us if it’s important.” He turned back to Hermann. “Ignore him.”

“I shall. Goodnight gentleman.” As Hermann walked away he could still hear them bickering about it and he tried not the feel the pang of sadness in his chest. It reminded him so much of him and Newton. 

Hermann went straight back to his room and as soon as the door was locked behind him he sat on the bed with the letter in hand. 

_Dear Hermann,_

_Jake says you’re alive but I don’t know if I believe him. I still feel like I killed you, but that might just be a trick of the Precursors. Get it? Like a trick of the mind. Anyway. I’m not sure of much these days. Just that I’m sorry for trying to end the world and kill you. And that sorry doesn’t even begin to describe how bad I feel about the whole trying-to-kill-you thing. I miss you. I know that too, that I miss you. Sometimes I like to think of what our lives would be like if I hadn’t been such an idiot. There’s even a part of me that’s still hoping that it’s you and me in the end. Doesn’t sound likely but I’ve always been a dreamer, right, Hermy? _

_Sorry again,_   
_Love Newton_


	18. "Your life was my life's best part"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anon said: Would you please write this Newmann story? "Your life was my life's best part" 
> 
> Wow, so I have been on the hurt comfort train with PRU. So please have some more! Here’s Hermann comforting Newt the day he is released.

Newt had been released by the PPDC. He still had an ankle monitor that made sure he couldn’t leave the Shatterdome and he wasn’t supposed to be within ten feet of a computer but he had a reading list to catch up on anyway so he’d live. He was given a room that was probably bugged to hell but that meant that if he started to talk to himself he could joke with the bugs about it and it’d feel a little less weird. It was a win for everyone involved. 

There was a knock on his door about ten minutes after he had been left alone, long enough to put the one pair of pants they’d given him in the dresser. He opened the door and saw Hermann with a huge gift bag in hand and an uncomfortable smile on his face. “May I come in?”

“Sure,” Newt said, with a shrug, moving into the room. He sat on the bed, far enough up the bed that Hermann could sit too without it feeling too weird. Everything between them had always been charged in a way that Newt had never pinned down, but it had gotten even weirder after Newt tried to kill him and Hermann had fought to break him out of brainwashing. “What’s up?”

Hermann sat on the other end of the bed and thrust the gift bag at Newton. “House warming of sorts.”

Newt laughed to cover up how touched he was. He did not deserve to have someone as good as Hermann in his life. “Uh, thanks.” He pulled the tissue paper away and started to pull things out. A hoodie, that he pulled on immediately, feeling the soft fleece on his arms and sighing into the warmth. 

Hermann smiled at him, blushing a little. “There’s more.”

“I’m working on it.” Newt pulled out three pairs of jeans and four t-shirts. 

“I had to estimate the sizes so if they’re not right I can return them and try another size. Getting time to go shopping didn’t seem like something they would grant soon,” Hermann explained. “I thought clothes that were a little more...you might help.”

“Thanks, Herm. This is,” he sniffled. “Great.” To cover his wet eyes he looked down, seeing packets of boxers and socks that he took out and set aside without comment. There were also two books and a blank notebook. 

“If they’re not…”

“Hermann, shut up, I tried to kill you and you got me a Battlestar Galactica hoodie. I’ll like these books if it fuckin’ kills me and honestly, would it be that much of a loss?” Newt said, hoping to get a laugh out of Hermann but instead getting a smack on the knee. 

“Do not talk about your life so carelessly,” Hermann snapped at him. 

“Oh come on. No one would miss me,” Newt laughed. He’d always been prone to darker self-deprecating humor but it’d gotten worse since his attempt to end the world. 

“I would. Your life is very important to me, Newton, so do not treat it so carelessly.” Hermann’s eyes still had a wild intensity to them. “Your life, Newton, was my life’s best part so please do not disregard it.” 

Newt shut his mouth with a click and started to set aside the clothes so he could scoot a little closer to Hermann. “Sorry. You’re kinda the only person who gives a shit about me these days. You were the only person who gave a shit before too.”

Hermann stayed quiet, looking at the floor between his knees. “You’re very important to me, Newton. In another version of our lives, I like to think that things would have been different.”

“Yeah, not exactly the future I planned on,” Newt said, scared to reach out and touch Hermann as he might have before. 

“One should hope not.” Hermann smiled at him. 

A silence stretched between them, each staring at the floor in front of them. After what seemed like an eternity Newt broke it. “Your life was my life's best part too. It was like being whole when we were together. Even before we drifted you were in my brain.”

Hermann smiled at him, soft. “Yes. It was much like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	19. “Don’t waste your time on me” “I want to waste all my time on you”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: Would you be willing to write this prompt for Newt and Hermann? "Don't waste your time on me." + "I want to waste all my time on you." 
> 
> UGH! This is so cute!!! Please enjoy some post pitfall waking up in Newt’s bed together sweetness.

Newt woke slowly, warm and comfortable for what felt like the first time in years. When he realized why it was he was so warm he felt his whole body go stiff. 

“Good afternoon,” Hermann said from right next to him, his voice rough with sleep. 

Newt rolled over so they were facing each other, inches apart on the narrow bed. “Morning.” He was wearing his sweatpants and a t-shirt but Hermann was wearing his slacks but no shirt. So they hadn’t had sex and Newt had forgotten about it. That was good. 

Some of his anxiety must have shown on his face because Hermann asked him, “Are you feeling alright?” while running his fingers through Newt’s hair. 

“Just remembering yesterday. That was intense,” Newt said, smiling at Hermann but he still felt tense. They had fallen into bed together instead of staying at the party and he distinctly remembered asking Hermann to never leave him and that he loved him. It had felt like the right thing to say at the time considering not two hours before they had drifted, but in the cold light of day, Newt felt silly. 

“It was an eventful day,” Hermann agreed. 

Newt laughed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, drifting with a kaiju and closing the breach, and meeting a mobster, and being chased by a kaiju, and almost being eaten would be called eventful.” Newt gave in to the urge to stroke his thumb over Hermann’s collarbone. He’d never been allowed to touch before and it was astounding that Hermann hadn’t slapped his hand away yet. 

Hermann ran his fingers through Newt’s hair, brushing it out of his face even if it wasn’t really long enough to be in his eyes. “Yes, dear, you had an especially stressful day yesterday.” Hermann was still smiling at him. It was like a whole other person. 

“Yeah, I mean and with that party, I bet there are a lot of people regretting what they did yesterday,” Newt said, trying to relax and smile. 

“Do you...regret saying the things you said? I understand that emotions were running high last night,” Hermann said, pulling his hand back from where it had been playing with the hair just next to Newt’s ear. 

This was his way out of the Twilight Zone he was now in, but he also didn’t want Hermann to stop playing with his hair. “No. I just meant if you regretted the whole waking up in my bed thing…”

Hermann rolled his eyes. “I was in full control of my faculties last night. I have no regrets about what I did or said.” 

“Wait, what did you say?”

“You don’t remember?”

“I remember telling you I love you but not much on either side of that,” Newt said with a shrug and an innocent grin. 

Hermann rolled his eyes at him. “Is this your ploy to get me to tell you that I love you again?”

Newt’s face went hot. “Nope,” Newt squeaked. “You do?”

“Yes, you pest.” 

Newt leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Hermann’s lips. He didn't know if he had done that the night before and a first kiss probably shouldn’t have morning breath but he didn’t care. Hermann just looked too cute with his bed head, shirtless, and smiling. 

When they broke apart Hermann looked a little preoccupied, which Newt tried not to take as an insult. “I suppose if we’re going to continue this we will have to find new employment near one another,” Hermann said absently and he was back to playing with Newt’s hair. 

That made the smile slip off of Newt’s face. Hermann was right, they were likely going to be in desperate need of new employment now that the breach was closed. The problem was that Newt was not going to be getting offers that were like Hermann’s. They might be able to find universities near enough that they could both commute but it didn’t seem likely. One of them would have to sacrifice and given Hermann’s caliber and the fact that his specialty hadn’t blown up with the closing of the breach it would likely be Hermann. After all, what did the world need with Newt now that the kaiju were gone?

“What’s the matter?” Hermann asked, stroking his thumb over Newton’s chin. God, he was so sweet like this Newt didn’t think he could get over it now that he knew. 

“You shouldn’t waste your time on me,” Newt said, looking over Hermann’s shoulder so he didn't have to face the fallout. 

Hermann scoffed. “And what if I want to waste all my time on you, Newton? What then?” 

“You shouldn’t. People are going to be knocking down your door with job offers and no one’s going to need me anymore,” Newt said with a shrug. How long did he have before Hermann had to leave and Newt lost this forever? He might as well start preparing them both for it now.

“You fool.”

Newt looked back at him with a glare. 

“You will be in more demand than ever. The world needs someone who understands kaiju biology enough to help us recover the damage their decaying corpses are wrecking on our planet. Not to mention the amount of pollution the wall and the jaegers produced. The world still needs you, even if there are no more kaiju. I daresay I will be the one struggling to follow behind you.”

Newt’s face was hot again and tucked his head against Hermann’s chest so that he couldn’t see him blush. “You mapped the breach and built jaegers. You’re like a science superhero.”

“Then it sounds to me that we should both have our pick of opportunities.” Hermann pressed another soft kiss to Newt’s lips. “But for now I must go back to my room.”

“Why?” 

“I need to shower and brush my teeth and take my medicine,” Hermann said with one last kiss to Newt’s head. 

Newt groaned. “But then you won’t come back to bed.”

“No, I won’t. We have a lot of work to do,” Hermann started to untangle himself from Newt and the blankets. Newt let him go reluctantly. 

Hermann reached down and pulled his shirt off the ground and pulled on his shoes. 

“Thought you wanted to waste all your time with me?” 

Once Hermann was dressed he turned back to Newton, kissing him firmly on the lips. “Tonight we shall find all sorts of ways to waste time, until then: work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	20. “Damn it Hermann you can’t say stuff like that to me! I love you so much it burns”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: Would you please write this prompt for Pacific Rim and Newt and Hermann? Thank you! “Damn it, Hermann, you can’t say stuff like that to me! I love you so much it burns.” 
> 
> I said: This is such a cute prompt and such a Newt thing to say. Please enjoy this post-pitfall drunk!Hermann love confession.

Hermann was, for lack of better phrasing, drunk off his ass. It would have been a little cute if it wasn’t also putting Newt’s life at risk. Drunk Hermann was tactile and with the drift effects in full swing his chosen target was Newt, whose heart skipped a beat every time Hermann passed by too close let alone draped halfway across his lap. He wasn’t sure how much more his heart could take. 

Newt had passed on drinking as he still had a pounding headache from his first drift and drinking didn’t sound like the best option just in case something was bleeding internally. Hermann didn’t have those concerns and had cut loose. Possibly a little too loose. 

He was sitting sideways on the bench with both arms wrapped around Newt’s waist and his head resting on Newt’s shoulder as he spoke to Tendo, words slurred. “Rockstars: all of us.”

Tendo gave Newt a look which Newt took to be his cue to get Hermann some water and into bed. “Alright, come on, let’s get you to bed, rockstar,” Newt said, extracting himself from Hermann’s grip so he could stand. Hermann frowned, his whole face contorting into displeasure at being separated from Newt.

“I’m perfectly… “ Hermann trailed off, obviously still searching for the word. “On second consideration I maybe slightly in..ine.”

“Inebriated. I know, let’s go,” Newt said, handing Hermann his cane from where they had tucked it under the bench for safekeeping.   
Hermann took it and with his other arm grabbed Newt when he teetered on his feet. “Possibly more than a slightly.”

Newt led him out of the mess hall and back towards his room. It was a quiet walk, they said the drift was silence but Newt figured Hermann needed to focus too much on walking to hold a conversation. When they finally got to Hermann’s room Newt unlocked the door rather than chance Hermanns fumbling with the keys. Inside he helped Hermann onto the bed and started to untie his shoes, Hermann continued to stare at him. 

“I hope it’s not permanent,” Hermann said, apropos of nothing. 

“What?” Newt asked as he set aside Hermann’s shoes. He stood back up in front of Hermann. “Arms up.” 

Hermann raised his arms so Newt could pull off his sweater. A part of Newt thought this should have been a lot more embarrassing but between the drift and the fact that Hermann had done this same thing to Newt less than a year before when he’d gotten too drunk to stand neither of them was thinking about it too much. “Your eyes are so lovely I would hate for the redness to be permanent.” 

Newt choked on air and his cheeks started to burn. “Uh, thanks.” Now he was thinking too much.

“And such a beautiful smile. I was so worried I’d never see it again.” Tears started to well in his eyes. 

Newt coughed and tried to keep his cool. Hermann was never this emotional and he certainly hadn’t said anything close to worrying about Newt since their letter-writing days when a letter had been lost and had taken a week longer than usual to reach Hermann. “You know you can’t get rid of me that easy. Now give me your belt, you’ll be pissy tomorrow if you sleep in it.”

Hermann frowned but took off his belt and handed it over for Newt to toss onto the same pile with the sweater. “Do you know how precious you are to me? Do you know?”

“Hermann, you can’t say shit like to me,” Newt snapped. It had been a long day and he was tired and it was everything that Newt ever wanted to hear Hermann say to him but he didn’t want to hear it when Hermann was too drunk to function properly. 

Hermann blinked slowly at him like a cat and started to lay down. “Why not?”

“Because I love you so much it _burns_,” Newt said, his vision going blurry as his eyes filled with tears. It wasn’t fair. 

Hermann rolled over onto his side and patted the bed next to him. “That’s okay, I run cold.”

“Hermann,” Newt groaned. “Go to sleep.”

“Then you’ll leave and my head will hurt again.”

“You’ll be asleep, you won’t even notice.”

Hermann’s eyes drifted shut. “Yes, I will. I can feel you.”

“That’ll be the drift. Sleep.” Hermann was already asleep. He rolled his eyes as he shut the door quietly behind him.

* * *

Newt woke that afternoon and it took him and almost a full minute to remember that the war was over. It was another full minute of elated joy before he remembered what he’d confessed to Hermann the night before and his face started to burn as he sank deeper into his bed. Why had he said that? Hermann had been the one who was drunk not him! Maybe Hermann had been so drunk he didn’t remember.

After a while of feeling bad for himself, Newt dragged himself out of bed and dressed. He figured they wouldn’t have much for food options since the party had started at dawn and it might have still been raging for all he knew so he skipped the mess. Instead, he went to the lab to find out what food they had stored away. 

In the lab, Hermann was already there in his Cambridge hoodie and nursing a large mug of coffee. _Act normal he might not remember._ “Are we doing casual Fridays now?” 

“It’s Saturday and I have the worst hangover of my existence. I will wear what I like,” Hermann said cradling his head in one hand. 

“Nothing but excuses with you,” Newt said as he went to the mini-fridge to see what they had. There was a bag of mini carrots, some bread, and one single frozen breakfast sandwich, Newt had bought them, they weren’t quite like the Jimmy Dean sandwiches from his college days but it was close and he liked to have them as a late-night working snack. “Have you eaten?” he asked as he warmed up the sandwich. 

“No,” Hermann grumbled from the couch. 

Newt stopped the microwave with one second left so it wouldn’t beep then took the sandwich to Hermann. “Eat.”

“Oh, these are yours.”

“It’s okay. I have more,” Newt said, waving him off. Instead, Newt had a pile of baby carrots with his coffee which might have been the worst combination he had ever made. He scrolled through his email for a bit, trying to decide how much of yesterday he wanted to put in his reports. If the brass found out about his drift with the kaiju they’d probably dissect him. Hell, he kinda wanted to dissect his own brain. On the other hand, he also wanted to brag to all the second rate kaiju-ologists about it. 

A while later Hermann came to stand next to his desk.

“What’s up, my man?”

“It occurs to me that my answer to what you said this morning was not appropriate.” Hermann looked nervous if still hungover.

“Oh, you remember that do you?” Newt said with a laugh, rubbing at the back of his neck that suddenly itched fiercely. 

“Yes, and I apologize. Telling you I was cold was not an appropriate way to respond to your proclamation,” Hermann said.

“Proclamation seems strong,” Newt argued. 

“Was it not a proclamation of love?”

“I mean I guess sure. Just sounds like you’re being a tad dramatic again.” Newt just needed to make a joke out of this whole thing and then he wouldn’t have to listen to Hermann try to “let him down easy.”

Hermann gave an irritated sigh which was a good start. “What I am trying to say, Newton,“ Hermann ground out before taking a deep breath, "is that I have very strong feelings for you and while calling it love seems premature there is no reason it might not grow into love at some point in the future.”

“Really?” Newt asked feeling like all the wind had been knocked from him. 

“Yes, you idiot.”

“Awesome. Cool. Uh, you want to go back to bed and cuddle until your hangover goes away?” 

“Absolutely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	21. Hermann's Ruined Winter Wedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: This is #67 from that winter prompt list floating around! I hope that you will be inspired to write it for Newmann! you were supposed to have a beautiful winter wedding but you were ditched during the vows and my idiot sibling/best friend just cracked a joke about how maybe I’d finally tell you how I feel about you and you h e a r d 
> 
> BAHAHA! I love this! In a world with no kaiju, Newt and Hermann meet because Newt is Karla’s best friend and they spend all the major family events together. Including Hermann’s winter wedding to Vanessa where he gets stood-up.

“You are officially the worst,” Newt said to Karla as they stood outside on the side of Karla’s grandparents' manor on their fucking estate smoking in freezing weather, snow up to their ankles. They had each pulled on snow boots and pants once things had officially been called off so it could have been worse, but only slightly. 

“How is this my fault? You wanted to see Bavaria, here we are,” she said pointedly blowing smoke in his direction. 

“Fuck you. You made me come to your brother’s wedding and he got stood up.” Newt waved the hand holding his cigarette to emphasize his point. About two weeks before Karla had texted him, letting him know that Hermann was getting married and asking if he wanted to come. It was supposed to be a small private party at the Gottlieb estate where her grandparents still lived. Newt had agreed to go because Karla was his best friend and because he was curious who it was that had captured Hermann’s heart since it wasn’t Newt. 

“It’s not like I knew it was gonna happen. I mean I never liked her but I didn’t peg her for the leaving-my-brother-at-the-alter type,” Karla said with a giggle. If one could look past the family’s embarrassment and Hermann’s heartbreak it was kinda funny.

“Everyone seemed pretty stoked about the marriage last night,” Newt pointed out. The rehearsal dinner had been fun if a little tense since Vanessa and Hermann were simultaneously meeting each other’s parents for the first time. Karla and the other siblings had met her a few weeks before but Lars and Petra Gottlieb were a whole different animal.

“Oh, everyone else liked her, she just wasn’t for me,” Karla said with a shrug. Then she got a manic grin, the one she liked to give Newt when she was about to force a drastic change in conversation. “Maybe it’s a psychic twin thing.”

He didn’t particularly want to talk about Hermann’s failed wedding either. “Being a twin doesn’t mean you can see the future,” Newt said, rolling his eyes. It’d be super cool if you could but he was pretty sure near-identical genetics didn’t give you the ability to see the future. The reported linking of twins’ minds was up for debate.

“I don’t know. Even fraternal twins, which are like low-rent twins, report psychic abilities,” Karla said with a shrug. She was just poking at Newt, purposefully conflating meanings to get a rise. Newt was sure she had done that to Hermann their whole lives. 

“So your mind linked up to future-Hermann’s mind with your twin powers and let you know not to trust her? I call bullshit,” Newt argued.

Karla shrugged and then realized she was at the end of her cigarette and pulled out the pack only to see that she was out. “Do you have another one? I don’t want to go back in there yet.”

Newt handed her his pack. “You don’t have to smoke to avoid going inside.”

“And let people think we were snogging? No, thank you,” she laughed as she lit another and handed him back the pack. “Thanks.”

Newt laughed. “I don’t think anyone would ever think we were making out out here.”

Karla gave him a disbelieving look. “They are about to become desperate for any of their children to have a successful romantic relationship. Even with you.” Karla glanced back at the house that was shielding them from the windchill. 

Newt watched her for a long second. “I would have thought you’d be pissed right about now. Threatening to tear what’s-her-face’s face off.”

Karla rolled her eyes. “They had only known each other for six months. They were getting married because she was pregnant not because they were wildly in love. Which is mad because it’s not nineteen-fifty, women are pregnant and unmarried all the time.” She settled into her winter coat a little deeper. 

Newt nodded. “Yeah, not a great reason to get married.”

Karla laughed. “She figured that out in the end.”

There was a moment of silence while they both enjoyed the reprieve from the stress that was inside. “Still kinda sucks for him,” Newt said with a grimace. 

Karla waved off Newt’s concern. “He’ll be fine as soon as everything settles again. Shouldn’t you be happy? This means the field is still wide open for you to stop being a coward and tell him how you feel,” Karla said with another grin. 

Newt was suddenly too warm despite the snow. Newt had had a crush on Hermann since they had met at a Gottlieb Family Seder that Karla had invited him to. She was in botany and he liked to say he was a biologist but one of his doctorates was in botany so they crossed paths enough to be friends. When she heard that he was Jewish and was stuck in England with no one to properly celebrate with she had invited him to her family’s celebration. That had been six years ago and Karla had continued to invite Newt to every major family celebration even if they had to spend the first three years insisting they weren’t secretly dating.

“Karla, he just got left at the altar,” Newt shouted, his voice squeaking a little at the end. 

“I didn’t mean today,” she yelled right back, though she also sounded like she was on the verge of laughing. “You’re so dramatic. But you should tell him at some point because you’re going to have to go to his wedding whether you’re the other groom or not.”

Newt was trying to come up with a rebuttal that wasn’t just stuttering and blushing at the idea of being Hermann’s husband when there was a knock at the glass window that was about a foot above their head. Karla and Newt took a step back to look in and saw Hermann standing at the window motioning that they needed to come inside. Newt thought he looked a little sick but with the day he had, it was to be expected.

Karla stubbed out her cigarette on the stone side of the house, shaking her head. “Well, fuck.”

“What?”

“Those windows are very old, Newton.”

Newt felt like his face was melting and his voice was pitched an octave higher than usual when he spoke. “Ya think he heard all that?”

Karla nodded. 

“Well, fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	22. Hermann's dog has a coat - no kaiju

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said Would you please be willing to write this nice winter prompt for Hermann and Newt? "we’re neighbours who don’t talk because you seem awfully grumpy but then you buy your dog a winter coat and shoes and i need a photo to show my friends"
> 
> AW! Hermann has a little Boston Terrier because honestly, I’m not sure that Newt could take care of a puppy. Also, Hermann installed little dog stairs next to his window with a platform so that the pup could lay in the sun.

Newt was not on the best of terms with his neighbor. It wasn’t like they were on bad terms or were enemies or anything, they just didn’t talk. And every time the obnoxiously attractive man saw Newt he’d glare at him as if he’d just insulted his mother. 

The only problem was that the man had the cutest Boston Terrier that Newt had ever seen. It liked to sit in the window sill on a platform that the neighbor had installed which was probably for cats but the little Boston Terrier was the one who pawed at the window whenever Newt passed by and stopped to make faces at it. 

One morning early in January Newt came out of his apartment, leaving early for a meeting with some of the European research groups on skype. As he came out of the door the neighbor did too and there was a small puffy coat around the dog. “Aw!” Newt exclaimed, ignoring his neighbor's frown as he knelt next to him. The dog pranced up to him, dodging his hand every time he tried to pet it as if to say “you may look but you may not touch.” Newt had never loved a dog as much as he did at that moment. 

Newt looked up at the handsome neighbor that was still frowning at him. “Can I take a picture of him in his little coat? My friends don’t believe me when I tell them I live next to the cutest dog in the world.”

“Fine.”

Newt pulled out his phone and took the picture. “What’s his name?”

“Brawler.” 

“What’s your name?”

“Hermann.”

“Well Hermann, I’m Doctor Newton Geiszler,” Newt said with a smile. 

“You’re a doctor?” Hermann asked, disbelief clear. 

“Ph.D. not MD.”

Hermann hummed and Newt made a face that he hoped said “fuck you” clearly. “Literature?”

“Biology, marine biology, biochemistry, biochemical engineering, genetics, and ecology actually,” Newt said with no small amount of spite. 

“Ah, you’re MIT’s golden boy,” Hermann said, clearly dismissing him. 

“And who the fuck are you?” 

“Doctor Hermann Gottlieb,” Hermann said with a glare. “Come on, Brawler. Time to go.” 

Newt just shook his head and walked into the other direction to his car. At the office, he tried to look up if Hermann worked at MIT during one of the more boring parts of the meeting but found nothing. As he was talking to Tendo, one of the electrical engineers working on the actual building of the project, about the weird morning he’d had Tendo made a face like he recognized the name. 

“You’re sure he said Gottlieb?” Tendo asked as they walked down the hall and towards Newt’s office where he had coffee already brewing on a timer.

“Yeah. Hermann Gottlieb, it sounded familiar but the guy doesn’t work here. I checked.”

“He’s at Harvard. He’s a huge deal in physics and robotics. But I don’t think he does robotics as much anymore,” Tendo said with a shrug. 

“How do you know all that?”

“He wrote the open-source code I use to run the robots I build with my kids. And I know he’s at Harvard because Mako had a meeting with him a few weeks ago,” Tendo explained as he poured himself the first cup of Newt’s coffee.

“Well, he’s a dick,” Newt said. 

Tendo shrugged. “Mako liked him.”

* * *

Newt didn’t stop seeing Hermann. Nor did he stop making faces at Brawler when he went past the window. The only thing that changed was that in Newt’s internal monologue his name had been changed to Sexy Grumpy Neighbor to Grumpy Harvard Asshole. 

It was spring before they had any occasion to speak to each other again. Newt was just getting out of his car as Hermann came running towards him screaming “Brawler come here. Brawler,” which is when Newt realized that Hermann wasn’t running towards him he was trying to catch Brawler who had taken off into the bushes that lined the apartment parking lot. He also happened to be right next to Newt who scooped him up and held him tight so he couldn’t wiggle his way out of his arms. 

Hermann gave a sigh of relief and the last few steps to where Newt was standing were slower and he was leaning more painfully on his cane. “Thank you. He can be quite fast when he wants to be,” Hermann said, clipping the leash to Brawler’s collar before taking him from Newt and setting him back on the pavement. 

“Lucky he ran right into my arms,” Newt said. 

Hermann rolled his eyes but he was smiling. “Thank you, again. I wasn’t sure you would help given our “feud”.” Hermann said the last part with a bitter smile that let Newt know that his trash-talking at MIT had made its way to Harvard. 

“Hey, you started it.”

“My assumption that you had a degree in literature was not an insult. Despite what some may think I do have respect for the humanities,” Hermann said shaking his head. 

Brawler was trying to sniff Newt’s boots but ran back to Hermann’s side every time Newt shifted. “Yeah well, even if we had a full-on feud going I wouldn’t have let Brawler get run over for it.”

“Of course.”

“I would have stolen him and taken him to my apartment.”

Hermann sighed like it was costing him a great deal of energy just to listen to Newt’s rambling. “Well, I’m glad we weren’t pushed to those circumstances.”

Newt shrugged. “Yeah. Truce?”

“We weren’t fighting in the first place, Newton.”

“Fine. Then how about dinner?”

Hermann looked taken aback which felt weird to Newt because honestly no straight man would ever dress and act the way Hermann did, sweater vests and bowl cut? No. And Newt never saw him with anyone else and there was no ring on his finger. “What?”

“A date. It’s what people who aren’t fighting do sometimes,” Newt said with a shit-eating grin to cover how nervous he was. He might have read the whole thing wrong and Hermann was just being nice in relief that Brawler was safe.

“Ah. Very well. How about Saturday evening?”

Newt’s smile turned more genuine, he was going to have to think of a place to take Hermann. “Sounds great. I’ll pick you up at your place around six?” 

Hermann rolled his eyes. “Very well. I will see you then, Newton.” After that, he stepped around Newt and his car to continue walking Brawler. 

“See ya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	23. "You have weathered greater storms that this"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: I have this line that I feel like I heard somewhere but I googled and can't find so maybe I imagined it or someone said it to me irl? But I think it would make a great Newmann prompt so I hope you would write something about it! "you will weather greater storms than this"
> 
> I’ve heard this phrase before too, anon. Maybe it’s just one of those zeitgeist things. Anyway please enjoy more of Hermann comforting out favorite biologist post-PRU

It had been a month since Newton had been released into Hermann’s custody. He rarely left Hermann’s condo just outside the base and when he did it was with Hermann by his side and never for more than a few hours. Hermann complained that it was like Newton was being imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, Newton argued back that involuntary manslaughter was still a crime. 

Newton spent most of his time reading or learning crafts from YouTube. He thought his knitting was pretty good - Hermann even used the scarf that Newt had made him. Crossstitch was fun too but wood carving had been a bust because while Hermann never said anything he made a concerned face every time he picked up the knife which wasn’t fair because it had been one try months ago when he’d still been infested. 

Hermann was supportive of all of it even now when his newest attempt was to master pastries. Hermann teased that it was because he had a crush on Noel who had hosted Great British Bake Off, which Newt denied with a grin and a wink. It meant he usually came home to a kitchen that was a disaster and steadily improving baked goods. Hermann took the ones that Newton was particularly proud of to the ‘dome and brought back Jake’s praise. 

Which was how Hermann found the kitchen now as he came home. The kitchen counters were covered in flour with a tray of burnt mooncakes cooling at the center of the mess but Newton was nowhere to be found. Usually, if the pastry was finished he would attempt to clean up after himself. “Newton?” Hermann asked as he walked through the flat. 

“Bed,” came the muffled response from Newton’s bedroom. Hermann went in to find Newton with the blankets pulled up to his chin and curled in on himself. 

“Are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine,” Newton said without moving.

Hermann hesitated for only a moment before he sat on the edge of the bed, facing Newton’s turned back. Newton had bad days that made him curl in on himself like this and even though they were getting less frequent not knowing how to make it better still hurt. “Are you quite sure you’re fine?” 

“I’m _fine_.” 

Hermann hummed but dropped it. “Well, I’m going to warm some dinner in the kitchen. Will you be joining me?”

“No, don’t go in the kitchen,” Newton said, sounding panicked as he finally sat up to look at Hermann. 

“Newton, the kitchen is the first thing I see when I walk through the door. Did you expect I hadn’t seen the mess yet?” Hermann asked. 

Newton was already getting out of bed, wearing the t-shirt and jeans he had put on that morning. “I’ll go clean up.” 

Hermann followed him into the kitchen and saw that Newton was nearly frantic with his cleaning efforts. “Newton, it’s fine. I can clean up tonight.” Hermann tried to be delicate, he had no problem with picking things up when Newton was having a bad day, it was no different than when Newton reheated the rice-filled heating packs when his hip was aching. It was what two people who cared about each other did; they helped.

“It’s _MY MESS_, Hermann,” Newton snapped at him without looking away from the counter where he was trying to wipe the mess, which was choosing that moment to stick. 

“No,” Hermann snapped at him, pulling at his shoulder until he turned around. “Go take a shower. You have flour in your hair. I will clean up the kitchen and then we are going to watch Star Wars.”

Newton rolled his eyes. “Hermann,” he started only to be cut off. 

“Shower, Newton.”

“No. You can’t keep cleaning up my messes for me! I’m a grown-ass man,” Newton yelled at him, getting into Hermann’s personal space. 

“I don’t see what being a “grown-ass man” has to do with accepting help,” Hermann yelled back. 

“Because it’s hurting you!” 

“How?”

“Don’t try to tell me that taking care of me all the damn time doesn’t wear on you. I can tell.” Newton pointed a finger in Hermann’s face that Hermann batted away. 

“Maybe I’m tired because I have to fight you every time I attempt to do something nice.”

“Then maybe you should let me deal with my shit and stop butting in!”

“You are insufferable!”

“Then why’d you save me?”

Hermann rolled his eyes. “Must I have a reason for not wanting to see you executed?” 

“Yes! I. Tried. To. End. The. World.”

“You weren’t in control of that.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe I did want to end the world and the precursors were just a good excuse.”

“I recall a slightly different set of events. Am I mistaken?” 

Newton went quiet for a while before shaking his head, eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know. I...I just don’t know.”

Hermann was quiet when he next spoke. “Have you been sleeping?”

Newton scrubbed at his eyes. “Shut up.”

“I’ll take that as a no. Go change into your pajamas. I will start the dishes. You can dry them,” Hermann said, going to the sink to start. 

“Fine, asshole,” Newton said, sulking off to change. 

Hermann took a deep breath, gripping the edge of the sink. Some days were hard and he knew that going in, but it didn’t make them any easier to live with. The fact of the matter was that sometimes Hermann was tired from worrying about Newton all day. It was hard not to. He had an ankle monitor that while Hermann was sure he could circumvent it made it difficult to leave the house if Hermann wasn’t with him and Newton was bound to snap like an ignored and bored cat. Hermann tried to plan around it so that it wouldn’t happen too often but he had also failed every time he’d argued for more leniency for Newton outside of the dome. They thought themselves gracious for allowing this. 

Newton came back in silently and stood next to Hermann with a towel waiting for the first of the dishes. They did the dishes without talking and then wiped down the counters without talking until the kitchen was clean. Hermann sat on the couch while Newt finished sweeping the floor and warming them up some soup he had made for dinner the day before. 

“You needn’t be so quiet,” Hermann said as he was handed his bowl of soup. 

“Just thinking.”

“About?” 

“Whether or not I wanted to end the world.”

“Did you want to kill me in Shao Industries?”

Newt shook his head. “No, but…”

“But nothing. That proves that they did had the reigns. It will take a while to recover from this, but we have the time.” Hermann couldn’t look at Newton as he said it. It was all too emotional for him and he’d spent too many years trying to hide what emotions he had towards Newton. 

“What if I don’t get better? What if this is it? What if every time I burn a pastry or drop a stitch I spiral and can only get out of bed to wash dishes because I already know I’m too much of a burden for you to have to also deal with my physical messes?” Newton asked, shrugging after every question as his face twisted into a more desperate and confused anger every time. 

Hermann glanced up at him for a moment and then back to his soup. “You have weathered greater storms than this. And so long as you need or want me I will be here to help you.”

Newton ran his shoulder gently into Hermann’s, smiling sadly when Hermann looked up at him. “I’m always gonna need you, Herms.”

“Always is an awfully long time.”

“I know what I said.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	24. Professors AU - first snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: "we were hanging out at a board game cafe and when we came out, the first snow of the season was falling and you look so cute with snowflakes in your hair" for Newmann please? Thank you!
> 
> YES! A No Kaiju Professors!AU with Newt being obvious and Hermann being oblivious.

Finals week was over at last. Finals for the students had been over for almost a week but the grading was done and final grades were entered which meant Hermann could finally breathe easily again. A group of the other professors were going out to an arcade bar and had invited him along and since he was in such a good mood he tagged alone. It had been a while since he’d cut loose and to be around people who had just suffered through the same terrible week would be a treat. Or so he thought until he arrived and heard the telltale sound of Newton Geiszler’s scratching voice. 

They had been pen-pals a decade before only to have that ruined when they met in person and realized they hated one another. Why things had gone so terribly that day was something of a mystery in the sense that there were a lot of suspected clues but no definitive answers. When they had come to work at the same university years later they had vowed to stay away from one another. Which was a bit of an issue since they also took the same bus home most nights and lived at the same stop, though Hermann lived south of the stop and Newton lived north. 

Their whole relationship was a mess and there was never any telling if they would talk like the old friends they were or if they would fight as viciously as they had when they'd both realized neither of them was what the other expected. One of the other professors had once joked that it was one of the few truly random things in the universe and Hermann couldn’t help but agree. 

Hermann went to the bar to get himself a beer and decide how long he was going to stay. He’d barely been able to take a drink of his beer before Newt was waving him over to his table where a “Sorry” board was set up. “Come on, grumpy. We need a fourth player.”

Hermann sat in the open seat next to Newt but rolled his eyes. “You don’t need four players to play Sorry.”

“Yeah, but it’s more fun so don’t be a stick in the mud and play yellow,” Newt said, with a smile that grated on Hermann’s nerves. He didn’t know why he accepted except for the fact that he wanted to beat Newton in front of his friends. 

They ended up playing five games with the other two players rotating after every game. To Hermann’s chagrin, Newt ended up winning three of the games and Hermann won the other two. 

“Well I know to stop while I’m ahead and still mostly sober,” Newt said as he stood up, regaining his balance a little for a moment as he pulled on his coat. New drinks were brought through every game and the most either of them had eaten was a shared plate of fries. 

Hermann checked his watch, almost ten o’clock. “Oh, yes this is later than I intended to stay out.”

“Come on, old man, if we hurry we can catch the next bus. It’s an hour wait if we miss that one,” Newt said. They went to the bar to settle their tabs and then left the bar together. 

It was bitter cold outside and Hermann was watching for ice, he was glad to have his parka even though Newt seemed content with just his leather jacket and scarf and beenie. “What are you teaching next term?” Newt asked as they walked, just to fill the silence. The bus stop was three blocks from where they were. 

“Introduction to classical mechanics, quantum and relativity, and computational physics,” Hermann listed off. He had finished his syllabuses for all of them a few days before and they were still emblazoned in his mind.

“A gen ed?” Newt asked with a curled up nose.

“They aren’t as bad as one would think. Physics has such a reputation that it isn’t the first choice of people who want to skate by,” Hermann explained. In truth the classes were a bit of a struggle but only because the students asked questions he didn’t know how to answer because to him it was intuitive. “What are you teaching?”

“Metabolic biochemistry, evolutionary biology, aquatic entomology, and helping out with the directed research,” Newt said. 

“Sounds like quite the full slate,” Hermann said. 

“It won’t be so bad. No one’s going to ask me what natural selection is,” Newt said looking up as if to the heavens for answers. “Oh shit, it’s snowing.”

Hermann looked a little closer and saw that it was in fact snowing. He couldn’t help smiling and hoping that it would stick enough that there would be a light dusting in the morning. He’d always loved the sight of snow even if it did make walking outside that much more difficult. They stopped at a crosswalk and Hermann watched the snow dance in the color of the street lights. 

“Beautiful,” Newt whispered, quiet as a breath. 

Hermann looked down at him and to his surprise, Newton was looking at him and not the snow. 

Newt’s eyes went wide and he turned away quickly to stare at the crosswalk sign. “You have snow in your hair.”

Hermann let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. “Ah, thank you,” he said as he brushed the snow out of his hair, only a little surprised when his hand indeed came away a little wet. 

The light changed and they crossed together. Any words he tried caught in his throat and the blush on his face was no longer just from the cold. As they turned the corner to where the bus stop was they saw the bus pulling away. Newt checked the time on his phone. “Fuck. A minute late.”

Hermann looked around to see what was still open but saw that it was only one bar and a restaurant that looked like they were about to close. 

“I’ll call us a Lyft. I’ll have it take us to the bus stop,” Newt said as he did something on his phone. 

“I can find my own way home,” Hermann said, thinking he would call a Lyft of his own or see if the bar had some more substantial food than fries. 

“Dude, don’t be stupid. We’re going to the same place,” Newt said as he pocketed his phone. “It’ll be here in five minutes.”

Hermann accepted his fate and nodded once. “Thank you.”

Five minutes later a blue compact car pulled up and asked if they were Newton. Newt said yes and they climbed into the back seat. It was a ten minute drive of tense silence, but it only got worse every time the driver tried to break it. Finally, they pulled into the parking lot of the fast-food joint that the bus stop was in front of. 

Once the Lyft had driven away Newt turned back to Hermann. “I guess I’ll see you around,” Newt said with a shrug. 

Hermann realized in that moment that even though it had been tense and awkward ever since he had caught Newton staring he didn’t want him to go. For a wild moment, he thought he would invite Newt to join him for a burger but he held his tongue. “Yes. We should do this again.” Newt’s face lit up, a cautious smile lighting up his face. “Next time we will have to play Othello and I can show you what actual game strategy looks like.”

Newt looked down at the ground for a moment before looking back up at Hermann. “Next time.”

They parted ways and the cold didn't bother Hermann on the way home that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	25. PI Ruined My Engagement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, Hermann is the PI and Newt is the one who got left because I already did one with Vanessa leaving Hermann at the alter and honestly I like Vanessa too much to talk shit about her. I do still like this though because the idea of Hermann the PI is just too funny to me.

Hermann’s office was quiet more often than not. Especially if he didn’t have an appointment. People don't generally go to a PI’s office without an appointment and if they came to his without one they would be turned away after a not so polite offer to make them an appointment. Quiet piano played from the computer speakers and he continued his search regarding the infidelity of a rich man’s much younger wife. He was fairly certain she was cheating on him, but he’d been hired by the first children of the man who stood to inherit twice as much if he wasn’t married than if he was so he needed enough to prove it to the old man. 

His office door opened suddenly and a small man in a leather jacket stormed in, face twisted into an anger Hermann hadn’t seen in the three weeks of his investigation into the man’s fiance. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” Newton Geiszler yelled, planting his hands on the top of Hermann’s desk and leaning over it to get in Hermann’s face. 

Hermann’s hand enclosed around the small one-shot pistol that he kept under his desk. It wouldn’t kill a human being but it was enough to maim and slow down anyone trying to hurt him. “Hermann Gottlieb. It says as much on the door,” Hermann said, keeping his voice level and cool.

“I don’t care about your fucking door. You ruined my fucking marriage,” Newton yelled at him. 

“I’d hazard that that was your fiance Thomas and not myself. I just brought to light the things that I was hired to find,” Hermann said keeping calm. Nothing he had seen of Newton would make him think he was a violent man and he felt fairly certain that he was safe, there was no reason to antagonize him yet. 

“And who exactly hired you?” 

Hermann arched an eyebrow. “Usually if my file has been shared the person who hired me is the one who did the sharing.”

“Yeah well, that leaves my dad, my uncle, and my mother.”

“I can’t tell you who hired me.”

Newton huffed and threw himself back into the armchair that was in front of Hermann's desk. “You ain’t a doctor, you’re not a lawyer, and you’re sure as shit not a priest. Tell me.”

He released his grip on the gun and folded his hands on the desk. “No,” Hermann said more firmly. 

“Can you at least tell me what it is you found that was so awful my family offered my fiance ten thousand dollars to leave me and he took it,” Newton asked, each word barely coming out of his clenched jaw. 

Hermann thought it over for a minute. He didn’t keep track of his clients after he was done with the case and it was certainly a turn to hear what it was that the Gieszlers had done with the information he had given them. “No. It would be a breach of my contract.”

“Come on, man. My whole life just fell apart because someone in my family is a suspicious asshole and hired a… fuck it was my mom,” Newt said shaking his head. 

Hermann wanted to smile because it had been Monica Schwartz who had hired Hermann to do the digging and he always found how well family members knew each other quietly hilarious. Especially when they were pointing out each other’s poorer qualities. “I can’t confirm that.”

“That I don’t need you to. Couldn’t mind her own fucking business if someone paid her.” Newt ran his fingers through his hair. “I want the file. He told me he was leaving me through text after I asked him where he was because he was late to our engagement party. Give me the file.”

“No.”

“How much do you want? It’s the money you care about.” 

“I cannot give you the file that I prepared for another client,” Hermann said, trying to hold back his exasperation. This was a conversation he had at least once a month but it didn’t make it any more tolerable. And Newton was being particularly stubborn.

“You know what? Fine, fuck you.” Newton stood up and stomped out of the office without another word. 

Hermann waited to the count of ten before he turned back to his computer to continue working. There were two minutes of peace before Newton barged back in. “How much to hire you to investigate my ex-fiance?” 

Hermann wanted to snap at him that he still wasn’t getting the file when he paused, to be paid twice for the same work was not something a smart man would turn down. He quoted his price and Newton curled his nose up. “My mom paid that much? She must have hated him.”

Hermann blinked twice, baffled by the man in front of him. Newton had six PhDs but didn’t seem to have any sense. “They paid ten thousand dollars for him to leave your life.”

Newton frowned. “Fuckers have been holding out on me. Anyway, fine. I’ll get you your money.”

Hermann pulled a contract out of his desk and started to fill in the blanks. “You aren’t getting the same file I delivered.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve gotta change the header so you don’t “violate your contract".” Newt rolled his eyes, slumping further into the chair. 

Hermann had to fight down the smirk because essentially that is all he needed to do. He slid the contract over to Newton who signed and took out his wallet. “You take card?” 

“No. Go get a cashier's check and I will have the report for you when you get back?” 

“I’ve gotta pay for a cashier's check on top of this?” Newton pushed himself out of the chair. “Fine, I’ll be back.”

Hermann watched him go, turning to his computer and saving the work he had done on the cheating spouse so he could open up his file on Thomas Kinsley. He copied all of the information out of it into a new document, scanning through to ensure there were no references to Monica before he filled out the rest of the template. As he was saving it to a small flash drive Newton walked back in with a cashier's check in hand. “Here.” 

Hermann took it, checked the amount and set it aside. He held out the flash drive which Newt took, staring down at it with a quivering lip and determination in his eyes. Hermann was not accustomed to adding his own opinions during a case but the whole matter was out of the ordinary for him. “For what it’s worth, you can do better than him. What’s on that file is not a reflection on you.”

Newt glared at him and sneered, “Not worth much of anything. It hasn’t been a pleasure doing business with you.” 

Hermann bristled. “No, it certainly hasn’t.”

Newt gave him one more glare before he turned away and left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	26. "I Like You So Much Dude"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said Would you please write a Newmann story about "I like you so fucking much, dude."
> 
> I LOVE this! And i love forcing them to talk about their feelings.

Newt and Hermann had just lost the last of their lab assistants. It was Hermann’s who they’d lost. They were good enough at multitasking that they were able to help out with Newt’s projects when he needed an extra pair of eyes or ears or hands, but it had been Hermann’s first hire and they had been together since the beginning. It made the whole week after the firing rough. They fought more viciously than ever, screaming until their throats were sore and eyes were stinging with tears they wouldn’t let fall. 

Hermann had stormed out of the lab around dinner time leaving Newt to be annoying by himself for a few hours before Hermann started to throw things that were less disposable than bits of chalk. 

As he finished his dinner he checked the time and saw that he had avoided Newt for two hours. It was probably enough time that they had both cooled down enough so he grabbed another cup of coffee to get him through the last three hours of his shift and headed back to the lab.

Back in the lab, Newt was glaring at his computer. It didn’t seem like he had moved at all since Hermann had left for dinner and he had been about to ask if Newton had eaten when he decided that the small peace they had was too fragile to disturb. 

Hermann went back to his boards to calculate when the next attack could be. He had yet to be able to computerize the whole calculation process and there were some bits that he still had to do by hand. 

After nearly two hours, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Newt stand and then suddenly pitch forward and grab the edge of his desk. “Are you okay?” Hermann asked, leaving his boards to cross the line to Newt. 

“I’m fine,” Newt said without looking away from the ground where his eyes had fixed. His knuckles were white. 

“You don’t look alright,” Hermann argued. 

“I said I’m fine!”

“Newton! I know you hate me but swallow your pride for a moment and allow me to help!” Hermann screamed. 

Newt seemed to deflate a little and straightened up. “I don’t hate you. You’re so dramatic.”

Hermann rolled his eyes and sighed. “Have you eaten?” 

“Not since breakfast,” Newt grumbled. 

“Go sit on the couch. I will bring you some food and water,” Hermann said, already walking away to the small minifridge to find what food they still had. He grabbed his baby carrots and some cheese. He refilled Newton’s water bottle and as he walked by his own desk he paused before going in and pulling out a chocolate bar from the drawer. 

He set the food down on the coffee table in front of them as he sat next to Newton. 

“Do you really think I hate you? It’s been a hard week, but come on,” Newt said as he took the cheese. 

“It hasn’t been just this week, Newton. You don’t need to pretend that we get along.”

Newt looked pained which was dulled a little by the fact that he had a mouth full of cheese. “Dude, I like you so fucking much.” He put a hand on Hermann’s knee and looked up at him with big eyes. “Like so much.”

Hermann felt his throat close up. Newton’s face was brokenhearted like it really did pain him to think that Hermann might think he didn’t like him. It reminded Hermann of the days of letter writing where Hermann had agonized for hours over adding a comment about Newton being his friend. So much vulnerability on display offered up to Hermann like it was nothing. 

“Do you hate me?” Newt asked, his voice small and a little afraid. 

“Of course not, Newton. We have our... troubles but at the end of the day you are very important to me,” Hermann said, placing his hand over Newton’s. 

“You’re like my best friend in the world.” 

Hermann smiled at him. “Drink some water.”

Newt dutifully did. “I’m gonna be fine.”

“I know you will.” 

Newt was quiet for a long time. “I’m sorry about Naija. I know you were close.”

Hermann nodded. He would miss her and life was getting harder without her but the symbol of what it meant that she was gone was what hurt the most. They were at the end of it all. The Wall was winning out which meant the kaiju would wind and the world was going to be over if Newt and Hermann couldn’t find Pentecost a new strategy. “It will be harder without her, but we will make our way through.”

“Yeah. More glory for us when we save the world.” Even as Newt said it he didn’t look convinced. They were desperate and could each see it in each other but at least they had each other. 

“When we’re already working twelve hours a day what’s four more?” Hermann asked with a smile. 

Newt smiled at him again, still sad but like he was trying to see the bright side. “We got this. And if we don’t... well, there are worse people to die next to.”

Hermann felt his breath catch in his throat. “Yes. I’m not sure there’s anyone else on Earth I would rather die next to than you. Or be next to if we win.”

Newt blinked quickly and for a moment Hermann was afraid he was going to faint. “I’m going to kiss you if that’s okay.”

Hermann nodded and leaned forward until their lips brushed and then Hermann deepened it just a little and Newt wrapped a hand around the back his neck and they were kissing. It felt oddly natural, there was no weirdness, it was what they should have always been doing. Hermann had never felt he belonged somewhere as much as he did in Newton’s arms at that moment. 

Newt pulled back to catch his breath. Neither of them knew how long they had been kissing when Newt pulled back to catch his breath. “Wow.”

“Yes. Wow.” As they stared at each other with wide eyes Hermann started to worry that they had just ruined everything. 

“Don’t run away. Please don’t run away,” Newt whispered, turning his hand to hold Hermann’s. 

Hermann felt his heart stop. He’d never seen Newt look so earnest, so desperate for Hermann to just listen to him for once. “I’m not. I’m here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	27. "I always forget to tell you I love you"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: Hello! Happy holidays! If you don't mind would you be willing to write this for newt and Hermann? “I always forget to tell you I love you."
> 
> UGH LOVE LANGUAGES! Newt and Hermann sitting and talking to each other about how much they love each other!!

It had been a hard week for Hermann. There had been an attack and while the timing of it had been in line with his prediction, the category had thrown that part of his model into question and he was having to change the whole thing. Newt had also been working nonstop since the attack, so the amount of cuddling at night had been irritatingly low and they had almost no time for each other during the day. It wasn’t anyone’s fault but it had been a bad week nonetheless.

He closed down his computer for the night, hoping that something would come to him while he slept. He stopped at Newt’s desk and waited for him to notice. “You going to bed?” Newt asked. 

“Yes. I’ve stopped being truly productive so I might as well rest,” Hermann explained. He found himself staring at Newt’s arms and hoping that he was subtle. He wanted a hug but he knew he couldn't have one at that moment because Newt’s arms were covered in fresh Kaiju.

“Okay. I’ll just be a bit and then I’ll come to your room?” Newt was asking even though to Hermann’s mind it was unnecessary. Newt would always be welcome. 

“If you like. Let yourself in. I’ll most likely be asleep by the time you’re finished.” 

“Aye, aye, captain,” Newt said making a little salute but not being very careful about the splatter, luckily everything did miss Hermann. 

“Goodnight, my dear.” Hermann went to his quarters and, not having the energy to shower, just brushed his teeth before getting into bed. He had just settled into the blankets when the door opened again. Newt was early.

“Oh. You’re already in bed.” 

“Oh thank you for letting me know. I was afraid I might be in the mess hall.” Hermann sat up a little more and saw that Newt had something in his hand. A box. “Close the door. What do you have?” 

“It can wait until the morning. I didn't know you were skipping-your-nightly-routine level of tired.” Newt was already backing out of the room. 

“Well, I won’t sleep knowing about the box now,” Hermann said as he forced himself to sit the rest of the way up, blankets slipping down to his waist as he sat against the wall. Despite what Newt had said his grin grew wide as he came back into the room, closed the door and turned on the light. 

“Here you go.” Newt thrust the box at him. 

It was a square box that wasn’t very tall but when Hermann removed the printed out HR complaints (the copies they gave Newt when he had to go in) he saw it was a tin that advertised shortbread cookies and was surprised to find that inside it was full of the promised shortbread cookies. “Oh thank you, dear. But why?”

“You’ve had a hard week and I’ve been so busy I’ve kinda been ignoring you.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“I know but I always forget to tell you that I love you because I just forget to say it so I try to show it but I was busy and I just thought you might need a reminder.”

Hermann smiled at him feeling how silly and warm the grin on his face was. “I hadn’t forgotten but I enjoy the reminder. “ He took one of the cookies and offered the box to Newt. Newt took it and bit in. 

The cookies were buttery and sweet and perfect. “I love you too. I know I should likely say it more as well.” 

“Nah you say it all the time,” Newt said with a shrug.

“I do?” Hermann didn’t feel like he did. The words were awkward in his mouth even though he felt it to his very bones. 

“Yeah. You uh...you didn’t start using endearments until after you said “I love you” for the first time so the wires just got crossed in my head. When you say “good morning, darling” I hear “good morning. I love you.”” Newt was plucking the crumbs from the blanket over Hermann’s legs. “I know that’s not what you mean but…”

Hermann felt his eyes begin to sting and his cheeks were hot. 

Newt looked up when Hermann didn’t say anything for a while and his face fell. “What’s wrong? Was that the wrong thing to say?”

“No, darling. It was perfect. You’re perfect. Whatever did I do to deserve someone like you?” 

“I don’t know but it must have been bad,” Newt laughed but Hermann would not be allowing deflection of any kind tonight. 

“No, my dear. It must have been something wonderful to match how sweet, and kind, and thoughtful you are.”

“I took a pencil out of your hand two days ago to poke into blue and light on fire to see what color the fire would turn,” Newt said, fixing Hermann with a flat look.

“Yes, but you also gave me the mechanical pencil that’s you’ve been carrying around since your first master's degree to use instead.” Hermann put his hand over Newt’s. “You have flaws and you do thoughtless things sometimes but I love all of you, not just the good parts that are easy to love. I love _you_.”

Newt swiped quickly at his eyes. “I love you too. I love you so much and I just want you to remember how much I love you forever. I never want you to forget.”

“I won’t forget, my love. I promise.” Hermann ran his thumb over the back of Newt’s hand and then squeezed it. “Are you finished working for tonight?” 

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s brush our teeth and we can go to sleep.” Newt nodded and they got out of bed together so Hermann could brush his teeth again and Newt could get ready for bed. 

When they were both finished and Newt curled up next to him, holding his hand tight between them, they both let themselves breathe in the moment and let the love between them wash over them. “You’re right. It is what I mean when I use endearments.”

Newt was quiet for a while before bringing their hands up to kiss Hermann’s knuckles. “Night, Herm.”

“Goodnight, darling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	28. "Glad We Ended Up Here"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: Would you please write a newt and Hermann one shot about this? "I'm glad we met. I'm glad we ended up sharing a lab. I'm sorry that it's been such a crazy ride but...I'm glad this is where we ended up."
> 
> Newt and Hermann are building their lives together after Pitfall.

It was their anniversary. Hermann liked to pretend it wasn’t a big deal to him, that the fact that it was also the anniversary of the breach closing was much more important, but they both knew he was lying.

Hermann planned them a nice evening out since Newt had been allowed to plan it last year. A nice evening out for dinner and a walk through the botanical gardens where Newt talked about how root systems were maintained in the different displays. Newt hated teaching but only because he hated grading papers, he loved sharing information and he loved telling Hermann things he didn’t know. Something lit up in his face whenever Hermann admitted he didn’t know something about an obscure fish or plant. Hermann had even lied a few times just to see that look only to be caught because Newt had remembered halfway through explaining why a flower was shaped a certain way that he’d said the same thing the year before when they had visited the cherry blossoms. 

It was a nice night and now Hermann knew a lot more about root systems than he ever needed to. Newt had dropped more than a few hints about how he would arrange them differently or which plants he would add or take away for a better garden. Hermann wasn’t sure what it was that he was dropping hints towards but he recognized the conspiratorial look in his eye when he saw it. 

As they were falling asleep, Newt with his head on Hermann’s chest, he spoke. “I’m glad this is where we ended up. I mean...bad way to get here with an apocalypse and everything but...I’m glad we met. I’m glad we shared a lab. I’m sorry it was such a wild ride but I’m glad it happened.”

“So am I.”

“Do you remember the day Pentecost told us that we had to share a lab?” Hermann could feel Newt’s smile against his chest. 

“As I remember you threatened to quit,” Hermann said, straining his neck so that he could see Newton doing the same to smile up at him. 

“I did. No one believed me though.” Newt turned his head enough to kiss Hermann’s chest. “They knew I didn’t hate you even if I didn’t.”

“I’m fairly certain that no one believed you because nothing could have kept you away from your research, not even me,” Hermann said. “There were plenty of rumors about what went on in our lab when I _wasn’t_ there.”

“Oh shut up no one actually thought I was fucking my specimens.”

Hermann shrugged just to watch Newt squawk indignantly and pull back. “We weren’t in middle school, you’d think they could figure out the difference between thinking something is cool and wanting to fuck it.” 

Hermann pulled him back against his chest and kissed the top of his head. “I never believed it.”

“Thank you.”

“You would never want to sully or hurt your specimens by exposing them to your passion.”

Newt struggled against Hermann’s arm that held him, a token protest since they both knew that Newton was the stronger of the two. “I take it back, I hate you.”

“Of course, darling.” They fell into silence, both drifting towards sleep. “Do you want to buy a house?” Hermann asked suddenly.

“Yes.”

Hermann startled and felt himself pull away to look at Newt. 

Newt was laughing at him. “Did you not expect me to have an answer?”

“I didn’t know you had thought about it.” 

“I dragged you to an open house for that place near the university under the guise of free cookies. Did you really not think anything was up?” 

“I knew something was off but I didn’t know what it was.”

Newt readjusted himself so that he wasn’t lying on Hermann and instead was propped on his elbows up next to him. “Then what made you ask?”

“You want a garden. We can’t have one in the apartment.” Hermann was quiet for a while, aware that Newt was watching him for a reaction. “I didn’t like that place. I want to be close to work but it was too far away from a real grocery store and not just a convenience store for students who have a meal plan.”

“Is this where you tell me to get a planter box?”

“No. I’m saying we need to find a place with room for a garden and that is near a nice grocery store.”

Newt’s smile was cautious. “Are you sure you want to buy one _with_ me? It’s like a marriage level commitment.”

Hermann felt a laugh bubble up in his throat. “We can do that as well if you like.”

Newt’s eyes went wide, he squeaked and buried his face in the pillow in less than a blink of an eye. “Are you serious?”

“If we’re going to do both I’d prefer to do the marriage first, but our lease is up soon so that may not be possible.”

Newt lifted his head enough to look at Hermann but his mouth was still muffled. “Don’t joke about this if you’re not actually serious.”

Hermann cocked his head to one side, they’d never had this conversation. Hermann didn’t even know if Newt believed in marriage. Sometimes Hermann thought the problem with the drift was that you knew so much that the blindspots were huge when you found one because you just forgot to ask the important questions. “Is it important to you that we get married?” 

“I mean if being married is like a deal-breaker for you then we don't have to, but…”

“Newton, dear. I would love to marry you. I do want you to propose though because I refuse to have _this_ be the story we have to tell people.”

Newt stretched over to kiss him softly on the lips. “I’m gonna propose to you so hard it’ll blow your weird argyle socks off.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	29. Hermann Comforts Scared Newt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: "Would you please be willing to write about Hermann comforting Newt when he's scared?"
> 
> and I said: Please have some Hermann comforting Newt after he falls out of bed due to nightmares.

Hermann had never been a light sleeper. He slept a little lighter after moving to the Shatterdome because, well they were in the middle of a war. After the world was safe from attack Hermann was back to sleeping “like the dead” as Newt had so charmingly put it. But when his boyfriend fell out of bed with a loud thump he woke nonetheless. “Newton?” 

Newton didn’t say anything but from the ragged hard breaths he was taking Hermann wasn’t sure he would have been capable of forming actual words. 

Hermann turned on the bedside lamp and stretched to see over the edge of the bed. Newton had his back pressed up against the side of the bed clutching his chest and staring vacantly into the distance. Hermann scrambled out of bed a second later, kneeling next to Newton and carefully unclenching his hand from his t-shirt. “Can you breathe with me?” he asked, pressing Newton’s hand to his chest as he took deep dramatic breaths. 

Newt shook his head, tears streaming down his face, but he looked like he was trying, his chest moving at only twice the rate of Hermann and then slowing down until he was no longer in danger of hyperventilating. “Do you want some tea?” 

Newt’s grip on his shirt tightened.

“You can come with me to get it. Some warm milk?”

Newt loosened the grip and nodded. They each used the edge of the bed to leverage themselves up. Hermann grabbed his cane and Newt grabbed the edge of his shirt. Once they were both walking out of the bedroom door Hermann untangled Newt’s fingers from his sweater and intertwined them with his own. 

Newt sat at the counter while he watched Hermann pour the milk into a pan and warm it slowly for him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Newt shook his head. “Normal shit, you know,” Newt said, hugging himself. 

“Come here, love. I have to keep stirring so I don’t burn the milk,” Hermann said extending an arm for Newt to tuck himself under, which Newt did gladly. It wasn’t exactly routine but it had happened before and they both knew it would probably happen again. Hermann kissed the top of his head.

“I’m sorry, darling. Do you want to know what I was dreaming about.”

“Nothing because you don’t dream very often?” 

Hermann made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat. Newt was right, he hadn’t been dreaming but there was no harm in a little white lie to help soothe frayed nerves. “I was dreaming of us on a beach.”

“What kind of beach?”

“A nice one. It was warm and not too crowded.” Hermann turned off the stove and poured the milk one-handed into a mug for Newt. 

“With soft sand?” Newt asked as he took the mug. They made their way to the living room where Hermann sat against one arm of the sofa and Newt curled into his side. 

“Yes. You were wearing the most ridiculous sun hat. It was bright red with little white flowers. You were stunning,” Hermann said kissing the side of Newt’s head. 

“I miss the beach,” Newt said quietly. 

“We could plan our next vacation for the beach. The Atlantic?”

Newt nodded. “That sounds good. Portugal or the Caribbean?” 

“That would be nice,” Hermann said squeezing Newt closer again. “We can look at hotels tomorrow?”

Newt hummed as he took a sip of the milk. They were silent for a while just living wrapped up in each other. “You can go back to bed.”

“Are you ready to go back to bed?”

“Not yet, but I can find my way back on my own.”

“I know you can. But I don’t want to let you. When you’re ready to sleep again we will go to bed until then we will sit here and enjoy each other’s company,” Hermann said firmly. Newt always tried to do this when it was his turn for the nightmares, to get Hermann to leave him be but every time Hermann had he’d wake to discover that Newt had never come back to bed and he was more distraught in the morning than he had been when Hermann had left him. 

“Oh is that so? Have you decided?” Newt asked with a little bit of laughter in his voice.

“Yes. I have.” Hermann smiled down at him and Newt smiled back for a second before going back to his drink. When it was Hermann's turn to wake up in a cold sweat Newt would never allow him to sit alone, Newt slept lightly to start with so he sometimes woke before Hermann and had the decaf tea already started when Hermann woke with a start. And he always stayed up with Hermann until he had drunk his tea and fallen back asleep with Newt running his fingers through his hair, whispering the whole time that Hermann was safe at home with him. 

Half an hour later Newt stood up. “Okay, I’m ready for bed,” he said reaching out for Hermann’s hand. Hermann took it and followed him back to bed, setting the mug in the sink to be washed in the morning. 

Once they were snuggled together in bed — Newt with his head pillowed on Hermann’s chest and Hermann running fingers through his hair — Newt let out a heavy sigh. “Thank you for staying up with me.”

“Of course, my dear. Get some rest, you have work in the morning.”

Newt pressed a little closer. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	30. Insecure Newt: Voice Edition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: Omg I love your insecure Newt so much!!! Would you be open to writing about him being insecure about his voice? Like Hermann doesn't love it, please
> 
> One insecure Newt coming right up

Newt liked to sing. He knew he wasn’t good at it. Never had been, never would be. But he liked doing it even if to make it palatable he had to play music so loud it would cover up how scratchy his voice was. Especially when he was trying to keep up with Queen Bee herself. 

“Boy, you’ll be the death of me. You’re my James Dean. You make me feel like I’m seventeen,” Newt sang loudly despite the hour. It was nearly midnight and Hermann was long gone so he was free to sing to his heart's content. 

“You drive too fast, you smoke too much, but that don’t mean a thing, ‘cause I’m addicted to the rush,” he sang as he danced around the lab bopping his head. The song made him think about Hermann every time it couldn’t be helped. Because yeah Hermann would be the death of him if the kaiju didn’t get him first. Those pretty eyes and that dumb grin when he thought he was onto something.

As he turned around his eyes caught on Hermann himself who had appeared back in the lab. He was just standing there watching Newt dance around and sing too loud. Hermann had seen Newt sing plenty but then Newt realized that he’d had his headphones in and his singing had been full blast which meant there had been nothing to cover the cracking and scratching of his voice. 

He pulled his earbuds out. “Uh, what’s up, dude?” he asked, trying not to feel the hot rush of blood to his face. They were dating, there was no reason to be embarrassed. Hermann had certainly seen him do more ridiculous things than dancing in the lab. 

“I came to see if you were going to come to bed sometime tonight,” Hermann said, smiling softly. 

“Y-yeah, yeah, I’m almost finished here anyway,” Newt said rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Good.” Hermann gave him one more soft smile and then turned back around to leave the lab. 

As Newt packed away his things for the night he reminded himself over and over again that he had nothing to be embarrassed or worried about. Hermann hadn’t even made fun of him that one time he squealed in bed, he wasn’t going to make fun of Newt’s singing. Probably.

With one more deep breath Newt reminded himself that even if Hermann did make fun of him it would be with love; Hermann loved him and he loved Hermann and sometimes there was teasing but it was with love. In their bedroom Hermann was already laying in bed, barely even opening his eyes to look at Newt as he came in. Newt got ready for bed and then crawled in next to Hermann, stretching over to give him a kiss. “Goodnight.”

“Oh, you won’t sing me to sleep?” Hermann asked, his smile soft but obviously joking. He was just too sleepy to give his shit-eating grin. 

“Haha, you were supposed to be in bed, not my fault you came back in to hear my screeching,” Newt said, elbowing him. 

“I like your screeching,” Hermann said, glaring at him. 

Newt swallowed the lump in his throat. “Dude, it’s okay. You don’t have to pretend to like my singing. I’m already in love with you, you don’t have to woo me anymore.” 

Hermann rolled over so he was propped up next to Newt and leaning over him just slightly. “I know. But I genuinely like it.”

“I wasn’t even allowed to sing back up for Black Velvet Rabbits, and we sucked,” Newt said trying to laugh. His voice was...bad and he knew it, he tried not to think about it because it wasn’t like he had a choice, his voice wasn’t something he could really change but he also didn’t appreciate whatever it was that Hermann was doing. The joke or the reassurance, whatever it was, was forcing him to think about it.

“I’ve been told I have peculiar taste.”

“You have bad taste.”

“You’re to my taste.”

“Exactly.” Newt laughed but any humor that Hermann had had was gone. 

He brought one hand up to Newt’s cheek and leaned in slowly for a kiss like it was their first and not their millionth. It was chaste and lingering and soft and it took Newt’s breath away. “Do not talk poorly of yourself, my love.”

Newt blinked up at him, feeling like he had just run a marathon. “Or what? You’ll kiss me like that again?”

“Yes. It seems to be the only efficient way to shut you up,” Hermann said, taking his hand from Newt’s cheek to intertwine their fingers. 

Newt laughed and expected Hermann to smile back and then roll over so they could both sleep. But he didn’t move, he just kept watching Newt. Like he was looking for something he couldn’t quite find. “Tell me, my love. Do you truly hate your voice?”

“Hate would be a strong word, just...you know.”

Hermann hummed, obviously displeased with the answer. 

“Why? It’s not a big deal, everyone has their thing,” Newt said, trying to shrug the whole thing off. He should have just let it go, now Hermann was worried about him. 

“I’m trying to decide on a course of action.” Hermann readjusted himself so that he was no longer leaning over Newt but curled up into his side with his head on Newt’s chest. “You see, I quite like your voice and I enjoy hearing you sing, I stood there watching you for a whole song before you caught me, but if it upsets you to have people hearing you sing I don’t want to upset you.”

Newt felt his eyes starting to sting. “Uh...for you.”

When Newt didn’t continue Hermann asked, “What?”

“I’ll sing for you if that’s what you want,” Newt said.

Hermann turned his head to kiss Newt’s chest. “Thank you. Maybe another time I will take you up on that offer.”

Newt used the arm that wasn’t wrapped around Hermann’s shoulder’s to turn off the bedside lamp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


	31. Careless and Cruel Newt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anon said: Would you please take this Newmann prompt? Hermann loves him and Newt was careless and cruel
> 
> Oh well, this broke my heart…please enjoy Hermann being upset about their first meeting.

Hermann made it back to his hotel room before he started crying. It shouldn't have been a feat but it was. Tears had burned the back of his eyes since Newt had started criticizing his work in ways that were simply out of his scope of understanding and he hadn’t been able to talk around the lump in his throat since he had left the cafe. 

He stood inside the door as it clicked shut behind him and felt the first shuddering sobs rake over his shoulders and a broken sound escaped from him. Slowly, since his vision had blurred and he couldn’t see through the tears, Hermann walked to the bed, set aside his cane, took off his jacket and then laid down. 

He’d had so much hope for their friendship. He wasn’t foolish enough to hope that Newt would want him the way that he wanted Newt, but he had hoped they could at least be genuine friends. Hoped that his sister wouldn’t have reason to smirk at him every time Newt was mentioned because honestly, he should know better than to get attached to someone he had never truly met. He had ended up a fool anyway.

Newt had walked in, smiled wide as soon as he saw Hermann, and threw his arms around him. But Hermann hadn’t been prepared; he hadn't thought to prepare for such a thing so he flinched and tensed and Newt looked at him like he had been slapped. But Hermann had been too embarrassed to explain that he was just surprised because, why should he have needed to? What kind of person hugged before they even said hello? 

Newt did. Newt was open and easy with his affection and Hermann craved it, but as soon as it had been on offer he had shunned it, turned up his nose without knowing why. Did he not want it if it couldn't be exactly the way he craved? Was he just frightened of the idea of someone caring for him so much that they want to touch him and what they might expect from him? Or was it just shock? Would he have relaxed if Newt hadn’t pulled away so quickly? The questions wouldn’t stop spinning in his mind, demanding his attention as he continued to ache with the loss of his best friend. 

There was a part of him that was longing to text Newt, the way he did every time something important, good or bad, happened in his life these days. But he couldn't, that wasn’t allowed anymore. 

After he had calmed some, Hermann started to strip out of his suit so that he could shower the day off of him and might be able to sleep and salvage the night. With the water running over him and the whirlwind in his mind calming he was able to think clearer about the rest of it. Because it hadn’t been one hug at the start, it had been everything that followed. 

Newt teased him about the sweater that Hermann had bought for their meeting because Karla had said the color brought out his eyes. He critiqued the fact that Hermann put milk in his tea and the way he picked at the muffin. Hermann had thrown back his own, about the unprofessional way Newt was dressed and the fact that he had been late. With each barb Hermann could feel their friendship slipping away and anytime he made a mad grasp for it Newt would grin at him like Hermann didn’t know something Newt did and then make another jab. 

And then the critique of the work began. Newt was a genius and Hermann could respect that but he was not a mathematician and he was not a physicist and he was not a computer programmer. He had no ability to truly critique Hermann’s work the way he had. His scope of understanding of Hermann’s work was small, just as Hermann’s was with his, but the way he had attacked with such viciousness and certainty had left Hermann taken aback. Not that Hermann hadn’t given as well as he had gotten. 

But it had been so upfront and so clear and in a moment Hermann understood that all his dreams had been ridiculous from the outset. Yes, Hermann loved Newt but Newt was careless and cruel. Newt cared little for what the people around him thought, even when they only had the best intentions towards him. He was singularly focused on his goal of saving the world but for Newt anything else was a distraction at best and an obstacle at worst. Hermann wasn’t sure where he fell on that scale, but he feared after the final sneering glare Newt gave him it was closer to the obstacle end. 

As he got out of the shower he considered re-dressing for dinner but decided against it, pulled on his pajamas and decided to order room service. It was one night and he had decided to allow himself to feel the sting of loss. 

_Damn, Hermann, you’re twenty-eight, learn an emotion,_ Newt had said laughing before taking a long sip of his frappuccino. Which only left silence for Herman to flounder in as he felt the sting at a distance. What had Newt expected him to say to that? What had he expected Hermann to do after all he had written about his own family not understanding how he processed emotions. After Newt had _promised_ that he would be different, that he would give Hermann the time and distance. 

What had he expected other than for Hermann to stand, glare, and say “Goodbye Dr. Geiszler, do not contact me again until you are capable of having an adult conversation.” 

Hermann took a drink of water and tried to push aside the memory of the day. There had been nothing else for him to say but he wished he had done anything else. Across the bed, Hermann’s buzzed but when he checked the hope that had lodged in his throat broke again, it was only an email about a sale on glasses frames. He wished he had said anything that would allow him to text Newt and ask him if he wanted to meet again, this time for dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to find my tumblr I am [ProblemWithTrouble](https://problemwithtrouble.tumblr.com)


End file.
